Plastiq
 | |
| Founded | 2012 |
|---|---|
| Predecessor(s) | 4ward Thinking |
| Headquarters | 360 9th St.
San Francisco, CA 94103 U.S. |
| Area served | |
| Founder(s) |
|
| Industry | Online payments |
| Products | Payment gateway Payment service provider |
| Website | Official website |
Plastiq Inc. is a privately held company that provides online payment services to enable users to make bill payments from their credit and debit cards, regardless of recipient acceptance. This service is used for various types of transactions by more than 1 million customers.[1][2]
History[edit]
Plastiq was founded in 2012 by Harvard graduates Daniel Choi (COO) and Eliot Buchanan (CEO) at the Harvard Innovation Lab in Boston, though the company traces its roots back to a tuition-based payments company called 4ward Thinking[3]. Early partnerships included Mount Royal University and the University of Alberta in Canada.[4]
In 2013, The Canada Revenue Agency allowed taxpayers to use Visa, MasterCard or American Express credit card to pay tax bill through Plastiq payment processors. Plastiq partnered with H&R Block to reach taxpayers.[5][6] And in the same year it raised Series A of $6 Million from Flybridge Capital Partners and Accomplice Ventures (formerly, Atlas Ventures).[7]
In 2014, Khosla Ventures led a Series B investment of $10 Million in the company and the company moved its headquarters to San Francisco.[8] Up to 2014, Plastiq was only available in Canada because some of its partnerships allowed it to roll its product out more quickly than the US.[9][10]
In 2016, the company launched an iOS mobile application to enable users to pay any bill by simply taking a photo of it.[11] The company also launched a partnership with MasterCard to enable International Chinese Students to pay US university tuition on credit card in their local currencies.[12][13]
In 2018, Plastiq raised a Series C financing of $27 Million from Kleiner Perkins in order to build out its small business product and bank partnerships.[14][15]
In 2019, Plastiq also announced that it would be re-opening its Boston office to focus on finding new talents to enhance payment platform and prepare for growing demand from business owners and entrepreneurs.[14][10] On August 21, the company opened its platform to Visa commercial cardholders in the United States.[16]
Product capabilities[edit]
Plastiq enables credit and debit cardholders to pay billers even if they don't accept card. Users can go to the web page or iOS app, designate where to send a check or bank transfer, and add their card and biller account information. Plastiq charges their card for the bill amount plus a small 2.5% transaction fee and cuts a check or submits a bank transfer to the recipient. Plastiq allows customers to pay businesses that haven't signed up for the service after verification that the recipient is a business that has provided a good or service, peer-to-peer payments aren’t allowed on the platform. The company offers a referral program for the users that want to avoid the payment fees.[17][18]
Funding rounds[edit]
Plastiq has raised 72.3 million USD from 14 investors in 6 different funding rounds. Their key investors are the venture capitals Kleiner Perkins, Atlas Venture, Khosla Ventures, and Flybridge Capital Partners.[19]
References[edit]
- ↑ "Plastiq: Empowering SMBs With Better Bill Payment". Kleiner Perkins. Retrieved 2019-09-15.
- ↑ "Plastiq, Tio: Pros, cons of charging your bills through an online service". CreditCards.com. 2017-10-09. Retrieved 2019-09-14.
- ↑ "Plastiq". Flybridge. Retrieved 2019-05-22.
- ↑ "MEDICI | Plastiq: Enabling vendors to accept credit cards at 0% processing fees". MEDICI. Retrieved 2019-09-10.
- ↑ "Paying your income tax bill with a credit card: Roseman | The Star". thestar.com. Retrieved 2019-05-22.
- ↑ Finance, Personal; Taxes (2013-04-06). "Plastiq lets you pay taxes by credit card in Canada | Financial Post". Retrieved 2019-09-05.
- ↑ "Plastiq gets chic with $6M to phase out cash and checks". VentureBeat. 2013-02-28. Retrieved 2019-09-15.
- ↑ Temple, James (2014-12-10). "What's the Matter With Boston Tech?". Vox. Retrieved 2019-09-14.
- ↑ "Ditch your checkbook: Plastiq nabs $10M so that you can pay for anything with a credit card". VentureBeat. 2014-07-15. Retrieved 2019-05-22.
- ↑ 10.0 10.1 Kirsner, Scott. "Some startups leave Boston, go west, and never look back. But this one is returning - The Boston Globe". BostonGlobe.com. Retrieved 2019-09-06. Unknown parameter
|url-status=ignored (help) - ↑ "The best apps of the week will let you pay bills with a photo, get an answer to any question, and voice chat with up to 50 people". The Daily Dot. 2016-04-23. Retrieved 2019-09-15.
- ↑ "Mastercard Helps Chinese Students Pay U.S. Tuitions". MasterCard Social Newsroom. Retrieved 2019-09-06.
- ↑ "MasterCard and Plastiq Enable Faster U.S. Tuition Payments for Chinese Students". BANKINNOVATION.NET. Retrieved 2019-09-06.
- ↑ 14.0 14.1 Maffei, Lucia (2018-12-07). "Startup Homecoming: Harvard-Born Plastiq Moves Back to Boston". BostInno.
- ↑ "Offline Payment Startup Plastiq Nabs $27 Million". Wall Street Journal. 2018-05-16. ISSN 0099-9660. Retrieved 2019-09-15.
- ↑ "Plastiq platform available to US Visa commercial cardholders". ctmfile.com. Retrieved 2019-09-15.
- ↑ "I Paid Off My Mortgage With a Credit Card — Here's How". www.gobankingrates.com. Retrieved 2019-09-06. Unknown parameter
|url-status=ignored (help) - ↑ Blumberg, Yoni (2018-11-08). "This couple paid $100,000 of their mortgage with a credit card and earned $2,000 in rewards". CNBC. Retrieved 2019-09-14.
- ↑ "Plastiq". Crunchbase. Retrieved 2019-05-22.
External links[edit]
- Article about using Plastiq to buy a Tesla Model 3 and earn rewards.
This article "Plastiq" is from Wikipedia. The list of its authors can be seen in its historical and/or the page Edithistory:Plastiq. Articles copied from Draft Namespace on Wikipedia could be seen on the Draft Namespace of Wikipedia and not main one.
