At AVP, we look for companies that are tackling large problems with innovative solutions. Bill pay was one such area that stood out to us – we saw a clear gap left by legacy players and a growing demand from billers and payers for modernization. Despite being a massive market in the United States, with more than 17 billion bills paid each year, the bill pay experience is outdated, fragmented, and frustrating for both billers and payers.
The Problem: A Broken Bill Pay Experience
For decades, payers have had to wrestle with clunky and inefficient ways of paying their bills. Too often, that means:
- Receiving paper bills in the mail
- Needing to call a phone number to provide payment details or, worse yet, mail a check
- Searching for account numbers, invoice numbers, etc. to be able to log in and pay
Meanwhile, billers are stuck with legacy platforms that haven’t kept up with modern expectations. These systems are inflexible, slow to implement, and unreliable in accepting payments. Billers frequently report dissatisfaction with:
- Limited payment methods that they can accept
- High payment failure rates and expensive call center volumes as payers and billers attempt to remediate issues
- Rigid platforms that don’t adapt to business needs
The result is a system that drives unnecessary costs for billers, poor customer satisfaction, and added barriers to paying a bill.
The Solution: PayNearMe
PayNearMe has built a modern platform that eliminates this friction for both sides of the transaction. Their suite of tools is designed to simplify payments, accelerate collections, and unlock real ROI for billers.
For Billers:
- CRM-like Payment Management: Software and money movement combined to manage the entire bill payment lifecycle in one place
- SmartLink™: Personalized links sent via text, email, or printed QR code, allowing payers to pay instantly with whatever method they prefer – no login required
- Analytics & Reporting: Real-time visibility into KPIs such as payment failures, delinquency rates, and payer payment preferences
- Easy to Use Interface: Bill payment becomes incredibly intuitive, which reduces the need for customers to call in thereby cutting down call center costs
- Single Platform and Integration: Billers rely on PayNearMe as their payment roadmap—continuously enhancing the payment experience and seamlessly adding new payment types and channels as they emerge, all without requiring additional integration work
For Payers:
- All Major Payment Methods Accepted: Pay however you want, whether it’s credit, debit, ACH, PayPal, Venmo, Cash App Pay, Apple Pay, Google Pay, or cash at 62,000+ retail locations
- No-Login Payments: Pay their bill in seconds without needing to remember account numbers or credentials
This combination removes barriers to making a bill payment, improves payer experience, and helps billers collect more effectively. Billers have reported lowered delinquency rates and reduced call center volume, which in turn has increased collections and lowers the total cost of accepting payments. The platform delivers a win-win for billers and their customers: faster payments, lower operational costs, and happier payers.
Why We’re Excited
There are over 17 billion bill payments made annually in the United States, but the current process leaves payers confused and billers frustrated. We believe PayNearMe is poised to reshape how billers and their customers manage bill payments across the United States, having pioneered Payment Experience Management, which optimizes every touchpoint in the payment journey across customers, support and operations. With its PayXM™ platform, the company delivers an easy-to-use, highly technical product that removes friction from the entire payment process.
Customers love the product because they can easily pay their biller however they want. Billers love the product because it drives tangible ROI in their business. Several companies shared stories detailing how PayNearMe drove up collections and lowered the cost of accepting payments in their businesses by reducing payment delinquency rates and call center volumes.
Danny and his team have shown an ability to innovate and execute. Their vision, combined with strong execution and client traction, gives us conviction that PayNearMe and the PayXM™ product are positioned to be winners in this massive market.
