ArtsPay is a big idea that came out of the pandemic when the founders came together to develop a big idea to support the arts sector which had been disproportionately hit by the pandemic. They hit upon the idea of disrupting the trillion dollar payments industry with the aim of growing a large new funding source for the arts using fees from processing payments. Everyone pays payment fees to organisations such as the banks and large multinationals in Silicon Valley whether they know it or not. ArtsPay however offers online and in-person payment services where 50% from each payment fee goes to a new Foundation they have set up to support the arts.
The service is powered by Fiserv, the second biggest payment provider in the US and the team has backing from a number of significant investors and government supporters (through bodies such as the Australia Council for Arts).
They have been live for just over a year and already have a large group of customers who use the service such as the Readings bookstore chain, Ferve Tickets, TryBooking and the Melbourne Food and Wine Festival. This business is reflective of a growing number of companies that have been set up to have a positive impact on the world which has helped them generate a lot of media coverage. They were recently featured by the ABC and named in the Top 100 arts innovators by The Australian.