Yellowpay

Yellowpay is a financial technology company targeting the $296 billion market for construction materials.

This company refers to itself as “the Klarna of offline construction payments” — a reference to the online financial services platform once valued at more than forty-five billion dollars. It provides small- and medium-sized construction businesses, as well as vendors, a fast, flexible payment solution.

The construction industry faces a straightforward problem: vendors like to get paid upfront, while customers prefer to pay for materials later.

In the construction business, access to capital is crucial. Yet two-thirds of all companies in the industry pay for building materials before getting paid by customers — a huge barrier to growth.

Yellowpay removes this barrier. Here’s how:

Its platform serves as a payment portal for material suppliers. This enables them to provide terms on all invoices. Vendors can get paid up front, or customers can choose to pay later.

Additionally, the payment portal enables contractors to finance and receive terms on all building material purchases.

Yellowpay makes money on each transaction completed. The amount earned depends on the payment method agreed to between the parties. For example:

Paying by connecting a bank account is free. If a customer uses a credit card, Yellowpay earns an estimated three percent fee. And if a customer selects the “buy now, pay later” option, Yellowpay charges an annual rate of between twenty-six percent and forty-eight percent.

Along with the benefit of flexible payment options, Yellowpay trims the underwriting process for transactions from days down to minutes. To do so, the company’s technology integrates with a customer’s bank account and retrieves two years of transaction data.

Furthermore, it integrates with platforms that feature relevant business data, and checks the credit of both the customer seeking materials and the owner of the building project where the materials are being installed.

Notably, Yellowpay is growing thanks to network effects. This is the idea that a product or service becomes more valuable the more people use it, which in turn increases its value even further. The company has experienced vendors using its service to get paid, then their customers use the software to pay other suppliers, who begin using Yellowpay.

Yellowpay launched in May 2022. It has lined up $150 million in signed credit agreements over the next twelve months, and the potential value of agreements in its pipeline could reach one billion dollars by 2026.

This year, Yellowpay projects to bring in about one million dollars in earnings before interest and taxes (EBIT). The company aims to bring in five million dollars in EBIT in 2023 and more than eleven million dollars in EBIT in 2024.

Team Background

Nathan Kannady - Chief Commercial Officer

Nathan began his career as an area manager with Hertz, a rental car service. He then was a regional sales manager with SolarCity, a semiconductor manufacturing company.

From there, he was a regional sales director with Sterling, an IT services and consulting business. After that, he became a sales executive with Greenway Health, an IT services company focused on the healthcare industry.

More recently, Nathan was a sales director with Gutterglove, a building materials company selling gutters and gutter guards. He earned a Bachelor’s degree in Philosophy from California State University-Sacramento.

Rune Skog - Chief Executive Officer

Rune has extensive experience running startups.

He began his career as a consultant with Steria Group, a European IT services company, focusing on implementing large network infrastructure. From there, he became a senior consultant with Ernst & Young, a professional services company.

He then was CEO of Thuja.no, a Norway-based supplier of outdoor trees for landscaping, and sold this company in 2017. After that, he was Chief Operating Officer with Eventum, an online marketplace for event management resources.

Rune holds a Master’s degree in Communication Technology from Norwegian University of Science and Technology.

Jason Kannady - Director of Fulfillment

Jason has fourteen years of experience as a controller in the construction industry. He’s been responsible for all financial operations including underwriting and credit checks.

He studied Accounting at California State University-Sacramento.

Bjornar Skog - Co-Founder & CTO

Prior to starting Yellowpay, Bjornar was a software engineer with Crisp, a software development company. Before that, he co-founded Eventum, the online event management marketplace also started by Rune.

Earlier in his career, Bjornar founded a pair of Norway-based software companies, Viavebb and Assist2web. He began his career as a software engineer in the Norwegian Armed Forces.

Co-Investors