It was the right place at the right time.
That’s how Relay Payments CEO Ryan Droege interprets part of the success of his logistics payment startup, now one of Atlanta Inno’s 2021 Startups to Watch.
When the startup launched in October 2019, nobody foresaw the pandemic or the extent of its effects. Droege and Spencer Barkoff founded Relay Payments because they wanted to update payments in the trucking industry.
The industry relies heavily on cash and checks, Droege said. Relay Payments allows truckers to have a similar experience as Venmo or PayPal to cut down the time they spend completing transactions.
The platform’s usefulness skyrocketed during the pandemic. Electronic payments are contactless, meaning people don’t have to transact face-to-face or handle physical payments that could spread germs. It also increased efficiency in an industry that saw massive growth due to the increase in e-commerce.
"The logistics industry is going through a transformation, where a lot of these paper and manual processes are rapidly going to digital,” Droege said.
Relay Payments quietly raised $43 million in 2020, one of the largest funding rounds in the Atlanta tech ecosystem. It grew from eight to 44 full-time employees.
Droege expects to top out at more than 100 employees by the end of the year and said diversity and inclusion initiatives are a priority throughout the hiring process. About 43% of employees are women and about 52% are people of color, according to a company spokesperson.
Relay Payments works with 350 companies and closed a deal with Old Dominion Freight Line Inc. (Nasdaq: ODFL), a leading freight company.
Atlanta’s strengths as a supply chain and logistics hub and payment processings capital helped the startup gain its first customers and develop its product, Droege said.
Relay Payments is looking for new office space around The Atlanta Battery to accommodate the growth. Since most of the startup’s hires have been remote, Droege is still working out how a physical office location may look.
"We plan on having more of a co-working style office, having our team members spend maybe two or three days a week there,” Droege said.
But Relay Payments’ rapid growth isn’t all luck. Droege and Barkoff aren’t new to the startup ecosystem. They founded RoadSync, a fintech startup that manages transportation industry payments, and have experience scaling technology companies.
