Promise wants to help consumers stay on the government’s good side by keeping them out of debt. The 3-year-old social justice-minded startup offers a white-label payment platform to municipalities looking to make it easier for citizens to pay fees. According to the company, governments using Promise see better repayment rates and waste less money hounding citizens for fees.

“When people don’t pay government debt, there’s serious consequences,” said Phaedra Ellis-Lamkins, co-founder and CEO of Oakland-based Promise. “A lot of our technology is built with the understanding that payments have to work based on the way people have income, not based on normal assumptions about how you build technology.”

The company’s technology runs on artificial intelligence that suggests payment plans based on factors like income. “When integrating with existing government accounting systems, we use APIs where available, but often find that [robotic process automation] can enable faster syncing to enable real-time information flow,” Ellis-Lamkins said.

She added that many citizens end up in the criminal justice system because of unpaid fees. The nonprofit journalism outlet The Appeal has compiled numerous accounts of citizens going to prison when they can’t afford fines for minor offenses.

Promise’s payment platform is leveraging its technology to modernize and automate the payment infrastructure used by municipal governments, which appears to lead to cost savings. For instance, early results from a trial study show an approximate 20% increase in parking ticket repayment. 

Although many municipalities allow citizens to pay fees online, the systems are often not user-friendly, and rarely offer options like payment plans or reminders, according to Ellis-Lamkins. She added that some municipalities require paperwork and 50% down payment just to enroll in a payment plan. With Promise, consumers can create a personalized payment plan online, and use apps like Cash App and Venmo.

Plus, paying government fees for court dates and parking tickets can be difficult to track, and not everyone can pay up front. Promise’s automated reminders and payment plans help consumers stay on track and governments collect payments more efficiently. Promise offers solutions not only for court fees, but child support, parking tickets and utilities. 

Promise makes money from fees charged to the governments that use its platform, and its payment plans are interest-free. Although Ellis-Lamkins didn’t specify the municipalities the company currently contracts with, she said Promise works with jurisdictions that represent “tens of millions” of people. 

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The company conducted a trial of three markets — Oakland, Philadelphia and Dallas — using its platform for parking fees from August 2019 to March 2020. The 1,778 participants in this study owed a total of just under $264,000. “To date, 88% of the advanced principal has been repaid and we expect a total portfolio repayment rate of 96%, based on the performance of the remaining accounts in good standing,” the white paper read. According to the company, parking enforcement usually sees about 70%-75% repayment rates. 

Promise moved into utilities about three months ago, and aims to keep expanding its platform to include other fees that often blindside consumers, like property taxes and health care fees.

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