Payment platform ConnexPay was named Travel Innovator of the
Year at the Phocuswright Conference’s Innovation Launch on Tuesday.
ConnexPay enables travel companies to manage payments rather
than turning payment processing over to travel suppliers, founder and CEO
Robert Kaufman said. This has historically been difficult for travel companies,
as they are considered “risky’ by banks because of future delivery risk.
Less than 50 percent of OTAs, for example, currently process the traveler’s
payments for the cost of bookings, he said.
“Banks hate travel companies,” Kaufman said during
the event. “They literally put travel in the same risk category as online
gambling and online pornography.”
ConnexPay sits in the middle to process the payment, run a
fraud check, authorize the payment and make the payment to the supplier,
according to Kaufman. The travel company can then use that payment to pay
suppliers via generated virtual cards, leaving them with immediate access to
any funds from the profit on those sales.
ConnexPay plays in the corporate travel management space,
with Toronto-based Globespan Travel Management listed among its customer
testimonials. It has corporate use cases outside of the travel space as well,
such as for paying insurance or warranty claims or procurement items such as
advertising buys, according to the company.
Previously, ConnexPay was named the startup winner at
Phocuswright’s 2018 conference. The company last year secured at $110 million
growth equity investment it is using to take the company global, Kaufman said.
