In a move which underscores PayPal's intentions of bolstering its position against the fast-growing mobile-payments startup Square, the online financial transactions giant revealed in a Tuesday announcement that it is acquiring Card. io, the company behind the technology which makes use of the cameras of mobile handsets for scanning credit cards and capturing relevant details.

While the financial terms of PayPal's Card. io acquisition remained officially undisclosed, the two companies are already associated with each other in the sense that the Card. io technology is currently being used in PayPal's March-unveiled `PayPal Here' mobile payment technology which caters to small businesses and casual sellers.

About the acquisition of San Francisco-based startup Card. io by PayPal, Hill Ferguson - PayPal's VP of global product - said in a Tuesday blog post that the Card. io employees will be joining the PayPal global product team in San Jose.

Revealing that the Card. io team will essentially help the payment processor "create new experiences to make it even easier for consumers and merchants to use the PayPal digital wallet," Ferguson said that the existing Card. io technology will to be available to developers who can use it in their own applications.

Further adding that PayPal's decision to acquire Card. io was based on the fact that the two companies have already worked together to fold the Card. io technology into PayPal's own mobile app, Ferguson said: "We were simply blown away by the creativity and drive of their employees."