The NY Times:

Square, the popular mobile payments company, has proved just how important designers are by making a surprising acquisition. It announced Monday that it has bought a New York design firm, 80/20, which specializes in user interface design, or designing the parts of apps, Web sites and devices that people touch and maneuver.

It sounds quite bold to acquire a design studio. Obviously this is a talent acquisition and Square made what it had to to secure such talents.

Now, the other interesting part is that the studio will remain in its current office, which will become the New York headquarters for Square. It makes sense to be in New York with the number of potential customers and partners. I wonder though if this has anything to do with the rollout in New York cabs. Is the team going to work on improvements? A new project? Hopefully we’ll know soon.

The acquisition has certainly been made easier by the recent round of investments Square closed. Likely, part of the goal to raise more money was to make such a buy.