“Square, Inc. (NYSE: SQ) today announced the Square Solutions Partner Program to better connect sellers of all sizes with best in class partners that can build solutions specific to a business’s needs. Square small business owners who are just getting started, as well as large scale sellers with complex needs, will be able to easily identify Square approved agencies, resellers, or systems integrators. Starting today, these agencies can apply to become a part of the Square Solutions Partner Program.”

There are a few mega trends, as Square’s chief financial officer Sarah Friar calls them, rippling through the financial industry: Executives are wondering if and when Amazon will take aim at their industry; banks are closing branches; and money is increasingly being passed around electronically. […] Quartz spoke with Friar at the company’s offices in Dublin about bitcoin, finance, technology, and software, which venture capitalist Marc Andreessen famously said will gobble up everything. The conversation has been edited and condensed for clarity.

“It’s standard practice to receive your paycheck every couple of weeks. But now Caviar, the food delivery service from Square, is launching an option for delivery drivers that’ll make the process of getting paid instant. From today forward, all of Caviar’s couriers will have the option to receive payment immediately after completing a delivery, so long as they receive the money inside Square’s Cash App. From there, they can choose to transfer the money to a bank account, or spend the money right away using the app or one of the app’s physical cards.”

“It seems like each new feature Square adds to its Cash app brings it one step closer to being a de-facto bank account for its users. Case in point, the app just rolled out support for ACH direct deposits, meaning users can now get their paycheck or other deposits put directly into their Cash app balance.”

“On Tuesday, Square revealed for the first time how many customers use the Cash app, and it’s a big number — seven million in the month of December alone, the company said in its quarterly letter to shareholders. (These “active customers” either received or sent money using the Cash app in the month of December. That means people who merely opened the app are not counted in the metric.)”

“Square is looking less and less like just the point-of-sale system that it was when it went public, though that still accounts for a significant portion of its business. But as it diversifies into new services revenue, especially with new products like Square Capital and the Cash App, it’s finding new ways to sell a growth (and stability) story to Wall Street that’s so far delivered for its shares over the past year. Those subscription- and services-based components generated $253 million in 2017, according to the company.”

“Square, Inc. (NYSE: SQ) announced today that it has acquired certain assets of Entrees On-Trays, a premier restaurant delivery service that has served the Dallas-Fort Worth metroplex since 1986. Square now welcomes to Caviar, its food ordering platform, dozens of the region’s most popular restaurants, including:”