PayIt lands ‘the Lou’ as a client for mobile payments
November 17, 2016 | Bobby Burch
Government tech startup PayIt is working with the second-largest city in Missouri.
The Kansas City-based company is now providing its mobile payment technology to the City of St. Louis, allowing its more than 300,000 residents to more easily pay property taxes via an app. Timing was apt for the partnership, as St. Louis’ property taxes began arriving in the mail about one week ago.
A city official said St. Louis tapped PayIt to offer residents more options to pay taxes.
“Taxes are never easy to pay,” St. Louis collector of revenue Gregory Daly said, according to St. Louis’ Fox 2. “We’re trying to make it as easy as possible.”
The PayIt app is free, however, there’s a fee to make payments.
PayIt burst onto the Kansas City startup scene in early January 2016 after it registered a $4.5 million capital raise. Led by CEO John Thomson, the company now has more than 20 employees that work to revolutionize how citizens financially interact with government agencies.
The company has grown from easing the initial pain-point of working with start departments of motor vehicles to streamlining services for other government agencies, including those that manage permitting, taxes, licenses, citations and more.
Left to right: PayIt co-founders Mike Plunkett, John Thomson and Ryan Townsend
The PayIt service offers city, county, state and federal government agencies a personalized platform on which citizens can create a profile to simplify payments and interaction. The platform, for example, can notify a user when a vehicle’s tag must be renewed and then allows payment via phone or computer, increasing engagement and cutting down on physical wait time. The platform also provides analytics information to government agencies on how citizens tap the platform.
Unlike many software-as-a-service (SaaS) companies, PayIt provides its platform to government agencies for free upfront. The company takes a small cut of the agency’s transaction fees, reducing its annual costs.
In July, PayIt won a national pitch competition as part of the annual United States Conference of Mayors, beating out dozens of other firms around the nation.
2016 Startups to Watch
stats here
Related Posts on Startland News
Kansas Citians, Techweek study entrepreneurship, communism in largest U.S. tech envoy to Cuba
Only 5 months after President Obama re-opened diplomatic relations between the U.S. and Cuba, a group of Kansas Citians joined the largest tech delegation ever to visit the communist country. Five area entrepreneurs joined leaders and other innovators involved with the national tech conference Techweek in an exploratory visit of Cuba’s tech and entrepreneurial community.…
(S)heStarts: Define yourself and your startup on your own terms
At a recent One Million Cups gathering at the Kauffman Foundation, Little Hoots founder Lacey Ellis discussed lessons learned since launching her company. It had been almost a year since she first presented at the pitch event, and one of her primary lessons is sound advice for startup founders. “When you’re first starting out, you’re…
Ag tech firm Farmobile reaps big multi-million dollar investment
Agriculture company Farmoblie reaped substantial funding to accelerate development and distribution of its technology to collect data from farm machinery. The Kansas City-based firm snagged a $5.5 million Series A round of equity investment led by Amsterdam-based Anterra Capital. Founded in 2013, Farmoblie created a device — or Passive Upload Connection (PUC) — that plugs into…
Regional venture capital and why Valley firms moved to the Midwest
In this week’s regional roundup, we have the dish on everything you should know from regional venture capital and cyber security to building a company that survives a dynamic tech market. For more on this series, read our introduction. St. Louis Biz Journal: Big raises, new funds highlight year for venture capital in St. Louis Not only…