Fintech start-up PromisePay becomes Assembly Payments, signs key Gumtree deal

Well-backed Melbourne-based fintech start-up PromisePay has taken the bold move to change its name at the same time as announcing one of its most important deals to date, with eBay-owned online marketplace Gumtree.

The company, which last year closed a $14 million Series A funding round with Australian tech VC fund rampersand, Westpac’s Reinventure, 99Designs co-founder Mark Harbottle and former Hitwise CEO Andrew Walsh, will now be known as Assembly Payments.

PromisePay had already picked up a strong roster of more than 100 Australian and international clients including Airtasker, hipages, Flippa and Carsales.com.au for its online marketplace payments platform.

It enables payments to be held in escrow, so a customer can pay for a service online, with the funds only released once it has been satisfactorily completed.

Its new deal with Gumtree sees Assembly Payments become its first payments partner since the eBay group divested PayPal in 2015. It will be used initially in South Africa – where Gumtree has become the market leader for tradie ads – for a new marketplace called Gumtree Connect.

The new service will work in a similar fashion to local marketplaces like hipages and Airtasker, and enable customers to post job requirements and tradies to submit quotes. The financial side of the transaction is then completed by Assembly Payments.

It is a customer win which Assembly Payments co-founder and chief executive Simon Lee described as a big opportunity to establish itself with part of the world’s largest classifieds marketplace in eBay. Once Gumtree Connect is established in South Africa it is likely to be rolled out in other markets such as the United Kingdom and Australia.

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Source: Fintech start-up PromisePay becomes Assembly Payments, signs key Gumtree deal | afr.com