Knox Payments startup aims to increase the speed of ACH payments

Two Richmond area entrepreneurs launched their online payment technology startup Wednesday in front of an audience of thousands in San Francisco. Thomas Eide and Tommy Nicholas introduced Knox Payments during a live presentation at the Launch Festival attended by nearly 10,000 entrepreneurs, investors and others. The festival is a gathering of technology entrepreneurs where 50 startups officially launch their products or services over three days.

Presenting today at the LAUNCH festival,Knox Payments is raising the curtains on a new service for merchants. Similar to Balanced and Dwolla, Knox Payments allows merchants to accept payments directly from their customer’s bank accounts. These transactions are known as ACH payments. But, while ACH payments are old news, Knox Payments hopes to stand out with an extreme focus on speed. Dwolla, with all its benefits, suffers from a horrifying onboarding problem: Signing up for Dwolla essentially feels like joining a bank — they even need your social security number. That barrier to entry makes it difficult for merchants to encourage non-Dwolla users to try the service.