Minneapolis-based ConnexPay, a payment technology company that enables marketplace businesses to collect and safeguard consumer funds while automating the distribution of payments to suppliers announced on December 1, 2020, that it raised a Series A funding round of $6.1M. The round included participation by new investor F-Prime Capital (with participation by previous investor BIP Capital). To date, ConnexPay has raised $15M in accumulative funding. According to the company’s press release, the funding will be used to accelerate growth, increase product offerings for the travel industry, and expand in other sectors that have seen a great deal of growth in e-commerce transactions.
“We’re excited to be backing ConnexPay because they are transforming how businesses accept and make payments. ConnexPay is delivering tremendous value to its customers and lifting all boats in the process with a more secure and transparent payment experience,” said Gaurav Tuli, Partner at F-Prime Capital, in a press release. “With his prior leadership roles at U.S. Bank, Bob and the ConnexPay team are uniquely qualified to bring this innovative model to market.”
In the simplest terms, ConnexPay is solving cash flow, credit, and fraud protection problems for travel agents by offering a single provider solution for payment acceptance and issuance. A characteristic of the travel industry is the difficulty for agencies and tour operators to obtain credit because of their high levels of risk. In addition, they commonly pay higher credit fees. ConnexPay offers unlimited credit, lower fees, and fraud protection, and handles all reconciliation in the background. ConnexPay helps travel agencies and e-commerce companies free up their finances in order to inject them back into their business.
”Consumers, travel agencies and their suppliers were frustrated by the lack of transparency in the payment process. While we initially built ConnexPay for the travel industry, we are seeing strong demand from non-travel businesses, such as marketplaces, event ticket brokerage, bill payment and insurance,” said Bob Kaufman, CEO and Founder of ConnexPay, in the company’s press release. “Our platform gives payment management and control back to those protecting consumer money and helps strengthen business relationships.”
ConnexPay’s streamlined process enables users to safely accept payments from their customers and make payments to their suppliers on a single platform in real-time, resulting in improved profitability, reduced fraud, faster record reconciliation; it has also eliminated the need for pre-funded accounts and credit lines. The company’s original solution has been integrated into industry-leading booking engines, and it offers end-to-end SaaS-based online booking tools to small and mid-sized agencies, OTAs and TMCs.
Robert Kaufman, founder and CEO of ConnexPay, founded the company in 2017. Prior to ConnexPay, Robert was the general manager of the virtual pay division of U.S. Bank. His tasks included overseeing product, marketing, and supplier enablement for all virtual payment solutions. Robert attended the University of Minnesota and has a Master’s degree in finance and strategic management from the University of Chicago GSB.