Infinicept Offers Launchpay, a Path for Software Companies to Become a Payfac

Infinicept, a provider of embedded payments, Tuesday introduced Launchpay, a payment facilitator (Payfac)-as-a-service model for software companies not yet ready to become full-scale payment facilitators.

Payment facilitators allow customers to accept electronic payments using their platform through a master merchant account. Examples of Payfacs include Block Inc.’s Square merchant-processing unit and Stripe Inc.

With Launchpay, Infinicept says, software companies can manage pricing, marketing, and sales, as well the merchant experience, while Infinicept acts as the facilitator of the master merchant account with the acquiring bank. When the software company is ready to become a full-fledged Payfac, Infinicept will move the merchants the software provider is servicing to its own Payfac account. In addition, software companies don’t have to drop the gateway they use to connect to the processor of their choice through Launchpay.

“We keep hearing that software companies are looking to own their payments, but that it is hard for them to become a Payfac,” says Infinicept co-founder and co-chief executive Todd Ablowitz. “We are providing a pathway for software companies to become a Payfac because we feel they should own the payment experience [within their applications], even though they may not be ready to become a Payfac right now.”

To help with the development and operations of Launchpay, Infinicept has hired Scott Agatep, a 25-year payments and technology veteran, as chief operating officer and the general manager of Launchpay. Prior to joining Infinicept, Agatep served as executive vice president of value-add solutions and services for ScanSource, an IT service and consulting firm. In addition, he held a variety of positions with other firms, including that of chief operating officer for software developer POS Portal.

Infinicept also announced its clients’ annualized gross payment volume on the platform has surpassed $15 billion.