PayIt’s iKan app named a finalist in Fast Company 2019 Innovation by Design honors
September 10, 2019 | Tommy Felts
Kansas City’s PayIt isn’t just worthy of investment — its foundational technology continues to win awards alongside the likes of Nike, Microsoft and Mastercard, said John Thomson.
Fast Company honored iKan — a PayIt-powered app that allows Kansas residents to pay vehicle registration renewals, renew their driver’s license (the country’s first-ever mobile driver’s license renewal service), and order vital records (birth, death, marriage, and divorce certificates) — during its Innovation by Design Awards for 2019 in the Apps & Games category.
Alexandru Otrezov, John Thomson, and Mike Plunkett, PayIt
“A cloud-native platform, PayIt was first in market to deliver a wallet citizens can use to simplify access to government services, an Amazon-like experience,” said Thomson, PayIt co-founder and CEO.
Click here to learn more about iKan.
Innovation by Design is the only competition to honor creative work at the intersection of design, business, and innovation, according to the Kansas City startup. This year’s applicant pool was the most competitive, with more than 4,300 entries. PayIt was among 483 honored projects, products, and services.
“We care deeply about supporting the mission of government and making government smarter, more modern, more transparent and more connected,” said Thomson. “Our approach is unique in this market and frankly our team has done an amazing job of delivering consumer grade omni channel experiences via an enterprise grade platform. All of which is serving to transform the GovTech market!”
PayIt’s partnership with the State of Kansas helped the startup deliver a local reference point as its business expanded across the nation, now serving some of the largest entities in state and local government, he added.
In March, PayIt banked a more than $100 million investment from Insight Partners, then a $25 million follow-on investment from Weatherford Capital in May.
Such milestones of progress for PayIt reflect a changing space for tech startups, said Alexandru Otrezov, PayIt’s newly announced chief marketing officer.
“It’s a new era out there for companies that are created by demand,” he said. “It’s not just ‘I have a great idea and I’m going to put it out there. I need a great marketer to sell it.’ People need something, so companies provide the solution. Look at Netflix, Uber, Tesla. They’re all created because customers demanded those products.”
PayIt is an example, Otrezov said, of a startup built to ease pain points as old as government itself.
Featured Business
2019 Startups to Watch
stats here
Related Posts on Startland News
From Google to KC, Beth Ellyn McClendon’s advice to startups: Test everything
Don’t fall in love with an idea, Beth Ellyn McClendon said. “Test everything, especially your assumptions, and allow yourself to be persuaded by data,” said McClendon, a seed investor who formerly worked with Google, Android, YouTube, Cisco and Netscape. “Try to remember — tattoo it on your eyelids if you have to – anecdotes are not…
Bodyrite duo cooks meal prep into personal training concept
Don’t just go with the flow at a traditional gym, Jamil Nelson said. Go with Flo. “Treadmills and ellipticals are pretty archaic to us,” said Nelson — or “Mr. Bodyrite” to his wife, Florese. “A jump rope is way better because it’s going to blow up your heart rate.” Modern workouts are all about functional,…
Denise Kruse: So your startup wants to be acquired – now what?
Editor’s note: The opinions expressed in this commentary are the author’s alone. In the first column this three-part series, I discussed how a stellar strategy only gets your company halfway, but executing can take you to the finish line. Next, we took a deep dive into what startups should do after landing a first big…
Tech tracks workplace bias: It exists ‘whether you want to face it or not’
During a summer internship with a large Kansas City corporation, college student Louis Byrd was unexpectedly called into the HR office. Although the incident was about 10 years ago today, it has not yet left his mind, Byrd said. “I’ll never forget this,” he said. “HR told me that the people on my team had…