Mobile and online payments firm Zipmark has announced the national availability of its digital check payment platform, the first online and mobile payment system designed to deposit funds into a business's operating account on the morning of the next business day. The primary purpose of Zipmark is to improve accounts receivables and payables for small businesses as many firms are still using paper checks as a result of transaction fees associated with other types of payment platforms. Zipmark's transaction fee is 1% with a USD5 cap.
In a recent payment industry report, titled Still Paying With Paper: Small Businesses Continue to Write and Receive Checks, about 50% "of paper checks written in the U.S., not including government checks, involve a small business." Many small businesses within professional services such as legal, accounting and landscaping receive a majority of their payments from customers via paper check.
Software engineer Jake Howerton, and former Citigroup executive, Jay Bhattacharya, founded Zipmark because they realized that despite the availability of electronic payments and electronic invoicing, businesses were still going to the mailbox to collect payments. The two developed a method of payment that is inexpensive, risk-free and simple to integrate via the Zipmark API to any existing invoicing platform.
"Zipmark secure digital checks improve the way small businesses send and collect money from their customers by bringing check payments into the 21st century," said Jay Bhattacharya, CEO and co-founder of Zipmark. "Zipmark is as much a risk management platform as it is a payment platform. We take on the risk of the transaction and guarantee funds to billers."
