‘Transformative’ $100M+ investment for PayIt means KC GovTech startup will boost hiring

A massive investment from a New York-based venture capital and private equity firm is expected to help push Kansas City GovTech startup PayIt to 120 employees by the end of 2019, John Thomson said.

“We’re already growing at a pretty good clip, and this will really help us accelerate R&D, serving more clients, and putting the pedal down on growth,” said Thomson, PayIt CEO and co-founder, describing the impact of Insight Partners’ more than $100 million investment. “Our goal is to be not just transformative in this industry — we feel a real sense of mission to help people — but we also want to build the next great Kansas City company.”

Click here to read the initial announcement about the funding raise.

Based in Kansas City but with coast-to-coast reach, PayIt already boasts about 70 employees — up from 25-30 workers about a year ago — Thomson told Startland Thursday morning. The startup is actively scouting a new local location for its rapidly growing team.

“We are bursting at the seams here,” he said from his Crossroads office. “This city really is a tech hub, and we’re believers in building a business in the community, and being part of it. Everything is an ecosystem. Let’s build it here, where the talent is, where the vibe is. We want to contribute to that, not just benefit from it.”

Insight was attracted to PayIt’s purpose and mission, Thomson said, noting its work to streamline the public’s interactions with government entities through the startup’s award-winning digital government and payment platform.

Click here to read why PayIt was among those selected as Startland’s Kansas City Startups to Watch in 2018.

John Thomson, PayIt CEO and co-founder

“Insight is a terrific partner. They work with big tech companies that are trying to transform big markets,” he said. “They’ll help accelerate our vision and mission to reimagine the way services are delivered and consumed. It’s about simplifying government to make it more modern, more convenient, more accessible, more transparent — to take out a lot of the friction of working with city, county and state governments.”

Across its portfolio, Insight encourages a culture built around a core belief: growth equals opportunity, said Ryan Hinkle, managing director at Insight Partners, in a press release. The focus is on how high-growth technology and software companies can meet the demands of consumers who “increasingly expect world-class mobile experiences in everything we do, from booking hotel rooms to getting rides to ordering groceries,” he said.

Announcing the deal Thursday, Thomson noted fitting timing with the community-focused Greater Kansas City Day, a March 28 fundraising event — with a tie-in to Royals Opening Day — that benefits children with disabilities or who come from underserved areas of the city.

“On Greater Kansas City Day — and in the spirit of Ewing Kauffman — PayIt aspires to be a great company that provides a great service to people, and is a great place to grow a career and contribute,” he said. “This is an important step on that journey. It is energizing to be able to do more, go faster.”

Kansas Driver License office, Mission

Other key steps in PayIt’s growth have included partnerships with entities like the State of Kansas — which debuted the PayIt iKan platform in 2018, allowing motorists to skip the line at the DMV — and the Unified Government of Wyandotte County, Thomson noted.

“We have great clients all over the country — big cities, big counties, big states — but the local support has been awesome,” he said. “They’ve been great partners to innovate, learn and share success stories.”

The $100 million-plus investment is a win for everyone involved because it means PayIt can not only expand its offerings, but its impact, Thomson said.

“We’ve emerged as the disruptive new tech in a market full of old tech,” he said. “We generate real outcomes, not just for constituents to simply their lives, but real benefits to the governments as well. We’re helping them collect revenue faster, improve compliance, and drive big savings and efficiencies.”