Assembly Payments

About

PromisePay is a payments platform for online marketplaces that outsources transaction management—including escrow, dispute resolution, advanced fraud detection and real-time credibility checks using social, device and email signals—taking on risk.

Mission

PromisePay builds a payments platform tailored to online marketplaces, handling payments while managing fraud on both buyer and seller sides and resolving disputes so marketplaces can focus on their businesses. The company runs real-time credibility checks for first-time users using signals like social media, device diagnostics and email, and takes on the financial risk for transactions. PromisePay claims over 40 customers in Australia and the U.S., including Flippa, Hipages and Airtasker, and graduated St. Louis’ SixThirty fintech accelerator. Founded in 2014 and headquartered in Australia, the startup reported revenue growth of 25% per month over the past year (no raw revenue figure provided). Headcount grew from 35 to 75 across Australia, the U.S. and the Philippines, and the company expects that figure to reach 140 next year. The founders are considering whether to expand into new verticals or enter new geographies beyond Australia and the U.S. PromisePay provides a payments platform that lets online marketplaces outsource transaction management, including escrow, dispute resolution, and advanced fraud detection. The company’s offering is intended to replace costly in-house payment systems and dedicated dispute teams, reducing IT and customer-service expenses. PromisePay says outsourcing payments via its platform can simplify and improve the customer-service experience for marketplaces. Known customers include Flippa and Jobstream. The company announced an additional $2 million in funding and plans to use some proceeds to open a St. Louis office and expand teams in Melbourne and San Francisco. PromisePay was originally founded in Australia and briefly migrated to St. Louis to participate in the SixThirty FinTech accelerator before returning to Australia.

Quick Facts