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
Coming to Leawood: Blade & Timber hopes to stick another win with second axe throwing space
Kansas City comes first, said Matt Baysinger. And that means providing cutting-edge experiences like Blade & Timber to folks across the metro. “As we were looking at expansion — and obviously we’re looking at cities outside of the metro and outside of Kansas — it made so much sense for us to say, ‘This is…
App snaps pics of items to ease moving process, MovinHouz founders say
What started as a couple of bad moving experiences developed into a mobile app to simplify the relocation process, said MovinHouz co-founders. Dominic Klobe and Chris Perrin, co-founders of Olathe-based MovinHouz, a tech startup incubated at Digital Sandbox KC, are building an app that connects moving companies to customers in need of their services, Klobe…
Student investors hope to make inroads with KC founders through pitch day
A group of student investors in the Kansas City University Venture Program are working to jump start deal flow and create relationships with Kansas City entrepreneurs. Launched in 2017, the student-led fund is hosting a pitch event to start a dialogue with area startups in hopes of finding their newest investment deals, said Nate Crosser, a…
NBA hires Alight Analytics to collect, analyze data from fans’ social engagement
The volume of data created within a professional sports team’s fan base is enormous, said Matt Hertig, chief executive officer of Alight Analytics. “Being able to see all of that data together across all of the popular social channels — from Facebook, Youtube, Twitter, Instagram, Snapchat — in one place and really understand the correlation…