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Boulder County Business Report – Inspire Commerce to Launch Pay Tool

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By Beth Potter

BOULDER – Ecommerce company Inspire Commerce will launch an Internet payment tool, InspirePay, in September, company founder Mark Fischer said Tuesday.

The InspirePay tool is similar to PayPal, a well-known Internet payment system site that has about 1 million users per month. The new tool is software that aggregates all Internet payment systems onto one Web page so customers can choose which one they want to use. The basic InspirePay site will be free, Fischer said, but also will offer a “premium” version, for which merchants will pay fees.

In general, Inspire Commerce will make money from the premium versions, from gateway services offered to merchants as part of the system & from new merchant accounts, Fischer said.

Since transaction systems on the Internet charge users different prices, choice is important, Fischer said. PayPal charges 3 percent, for example, while Dwolla & other small companies may charge 25 cents to 50 cents per transaction.

In addition, the new software can integrate existing software code easily, allowing any online “shopping cart” or “buy now” button to accept payments from multiple payment methods without modifying computer code, according to a press statement about the new tool.

Investors include Adriaan Pienaar, founder of WooThemes, a WordPress theme provider based in Capetown, South Africa & dojo4, a web-development company in Boulder. InspireCommerce plans to have $500,000 raised to support the new product before launching it, Fischer said.

Inspire Commerce reported revenue of $560,000 in 2010. Local clients include Boulder Farmers Market, Nick ‘n Willy’s Pizza & Nap Inc.’s Boba Baby Carrier. National Clients include B Corp., New Leaf Paper, Singlebrook Technologies & Atayne LLC apparel company.

Inspire Commerce calls itself a “for-benefit” corporation that donates 10 percent of its net revenue to nonprofit groups. The company also is a member of the “1% for the Planet” business group, which donates 1 percent of revenue to environmental groups, the Boulder Independent Business Alliance & the Carbon Fund.