Our History

2000
Unicard's story begins with Smart Cities – a European project managed by Schlumberger with the goal of introducing a single, all-access smartcard to Southampton. Our Executive Chairman, Peter Verrept, is the Technical Lead on this project.
2003
Peter Verrept and Konstantin Chterev acquire the Smart Cities products from Schlumberger and, with it, create Unicard. Konstantin establishes the software development team in Varna, Bulgaria, with Peter running sales and support close to existing customers in Southampton. Together, they set out to deliver the Smart Cities concept to other local authorities in the UK.
Unicard quickly realise that the most successful element of our product proposition serves the transport sector. A decision is made to concentrate our efforts on Card Management Systems, the printing of ITSO cards, and expansion into ITSO transaction management systems.
2008
Unicard form a partnership with Euclid, helping to develop the implementation of ITSO for our card issuing scheme.
Unicard secure our first contract with Transport for West Midlands. An initially small contract grows to become, and remains, a very important part of our business.
2011
As a result of our partnership with Ticketer, we secure our first joint customer in Reading. Unicard are now processing ITSO messages and providing ITSO terminal libraries.
Recognition of Unicard’s growing capabilities increases when we become the first organisation to employ Experian identity-checking services.
2016
Unicard and Euclid win the tender to provide ticketing systems to Transport for West Midlands. Unicard now provide complex, integrated commercial ticketing portals and front-end mobile applications.
2018
Unicard, working with ITSO and Idemia, help to deliver ITSO on Mobile by building the engine that supports smart ticketing on mobile phones and other devices.
2019
Unicard and Euclid deliver Account Based Ticketing (ABT) for Transport for West Midlands. Sean Dickinson joins as CEO to drive Unicard’s continued expansion.
2020
Transport Scotland select Unicard to deliver a mobile app, AMS-HOPS, and Part 11 integration to manage the Scottish Concessionary Travel Scheme.
2021
Solent Transport appoint Unicard, Trafi, and Behavioural Insights Team to deliver the UK’s first multi-city MaaS scheme as part of their Future Transport Zone plan.
Unicard move into the rail sector as Rail Delivery Group (RDG) select us to deliver an industry-first, cloud-based, multi-tenanted HOPS to support 17 Train Operating Companies.
2022
Innovate UK award funding to Unicard to develop Smart Ticketing Broker – a pioneering solution enabling seamless travel and payments, at the best price, for an estimated 1.5 million UK bus passengers every day.
Unicard increase our charity fundraising efforts, with staff at our UK and Bulgaria offices raising money for Trussell Trust, Dorset Mind, and Karin Dom.
2023
Unicard acquire smart ticketing specialists Ecebs from Visa. The move sees Unicard add contactless EMV to our extensive solutions portfolio, putting us at the centre of the rapidly growing smart mobility sector, and cementing our significant leadership position in the UK market for smartcard ticketing and concessionary travel.
2023
Unicard deploy the Ticketing Hub platform with Transport for Wales (TfW) to allow their passengers to use a contactless EMV payment card or mobile device to tap in and out at the start and end of every train journey. This will enable TfW to become the first UK train operator outside London and the south-east of England to offer Pay As You Go ticketing.
2024
We announce the nationwide launch of Ticketing Hub. TfW have begun a live pilot phase using our solution before expanding the service across the South Wales Metro area throughout 2024.
2024
Rail Delivery Group (RDG) complete their back-office migration to the Unicard HOPS solution that will support smart ticketing for all train operators in Britain.