What Paymint does

Paymint is a South Korea-based fintech company founded in 2014 that builds payment infrastructure for small and medium-sized merchants, specializing in non-face-to-face mobile billing collection. Its flagship product, 결제선생 (Geolje Seonsaeng / Payssam), enables merchants to send payment requests to customers via KakaoTalk messenger using Paymint's proprietary non-face-to-face direct approval technology, which bypasses traditional payment gateway (PG) intermediaries. Merchants pay 55 KRW per KakaoTalk message sent, roughly one-third the cost of the standard 0.3% card processing fee, with next-day settlement and 24-hour payment availability. The company also operates SpeeID (a web-standard simple payment service) and iAuth (a B2B credit card authentication interface) for businesses building their own payment services.

Paymint's core technology stack runs on AWS VPC — making it the first AWS-based electronic financial business operator in Korea (January 2020) — and includes proprietary authentication and direct approval capabilities recognized by the Financial Services Commission through its 'Innovation Financial Service' designation. The company serves primarily education-sector merchants (academies) as its initial vertical, with healthcare (hospitals and medical clinics) as its stated 2024 expansion focus. The company is now a wholly-owned subsidiary of KakaoPay following its November 2023 acquisition, and reached 100,000+ accumulated merchants and 10 trillion KRW+ cumulative transaction volume by January 2026.

Name

Paymint

Legal name

Paymint Inc.

Website

https://paymint.co.kr

Company type

Private

Founded year

2014

Operating status

Operating

Headcount range

11–50 employees

Short description

Paymint is a South Korean fintech (founded 2014, subsidiary of KakaoPay since 2023) that operates the 결제선생 mobile billing payment service, enabling small merchants to collect non-face-to-face payments via KakaoTalk at 55 KRW per transaction — roughly one-third of standard card processing fees.

Ownership category

akta.pro rank

Product category

Mobile Payment Platform

NAICS

Financial Transactions Processing, Reserve, and Clearinghouse Activities (52232)

SIC

Finance Services (6199)

akta.pro primary industry

Bank-to-Bank Transfers & Pay-by-Bank (Consumer & Merchant) (FSAMAFAC)

akta.pro secondary industries

Marketplace & Platform Seller Payouts (FSAMAKAE), Embedded Payments (Pay-ins, Pay-outs, Wallets) (FSAGALAB)

Keywords

• Mobile payment services
• Payment infrastructure
• Merchant payment solutions
• Non-face-to-face payments
• B2B payment API

Headquarters

HQ city

Seongdong

HQ country

South Korea

HQ region

Asia

Offices1 record

Markets served

GTM type

B2B

Offering type

Software

Cost components

Technology or R&D, Personnel, Marketing or Sales, Operations, Infrastructure

Revenue model

1. Transaction/Merchant Fees - Simplified Model: Paymint charges merchants a fraction of traditional PG fees. Instead of the standard 0.3% card processing fee, merchants pay only 55 KRW per KakaoTalk message sent for payment collection. This dramatically reduces costs for small merchants while generating revenue per transaction.
2. B2B API/Interface Services: Revenue from providing iAuth B2B credit card integrated authentication interfaces to businesses wanting to build their own simple payment services

Pricing tiers

Go-to-market motion1 record

Distribution channels4 records

Marketing channels5 records

Core offering

Paymint develops and operates a mobile payment infrastructure that enables small and medium merchants to collect card and billing payments directly via KakaoTalk messenger, bypassing traditional payment gateway intermediaries. Its flagship Geolje Seonsaeng (결제선생) service charges merchants 55 KRW per payment-request message rather than the conventional 0.3% gateway fee, and is complemented by Speeid for web-based simple payments and iAuth for B2B credit-card authentication. The platform was the first electronic financial business in Korea to operate on AWS cloud infrastructure.

Product overview

Paymint operates as a fintech company specializing in payment infrastructure for merchants, offering a portfolio of interconnected payment solutions. The core offering is 결제선생 (Payssam), a mobile billing service that leverages KakaoTalk for contactless payments, complemented by speeid for web-based payments and iAuth for B2B authentication services. Together, these products address different payment scenarios—mobile/chat-based billing, browser-based payments, and enterprise integration—while the historical LINQ POS service and manager app extend the ecosystem for comprehensive merchant payment management.

Differentiator

Problem solved

Functional benefit

Brands

• 결제선생 (Geolje Seonsaeng): Mobile billing payment/collection management service that enables merchants to send payment requests via KakaoTalk messenger
• Speeid
• iAuth

Products and services

• Geolje Seonsaeng (결제선생) Mobile billing and payment collection service that lets merchants send payment requests to customers directly via KakaoTalk messenger, bypassing traditional payment gateways by charging 55 KRW per message instead of a 0.3% commission. Designed for small and medium Korean merchants across education, healthcare, retail, and service.
• Speeid Web-standard simple payment integrated service enabling credit card and bank account payments without requiring app installation, allowing merchants to accept payments through any browser.
• iAuth B2B credit card integrated authentication interface service that lets businesses embed authentication and simple payment functionality into their own proprietary payment services.
• LINQ Smart order mobile POS service for small and medium-sized merchants, providing smart ordering functionality combined with mobile payment processing for smart stores.
• Geolje Seonsaeng Manager App (결제선생 매니저앱) Mobile manager application companion to the Geolje Seonsaeng service, enabling merchants to manage payments, track transactions, and handle billing collections from their smartphones.

Quantifiable outcome

• 100 billion KRW annual savings for small and medium merchants on payment processing fees
• +3 more outcomes

Named customers2 records

Segments4 records

Ideal customer profiles2 records

Technology focussed Yes

API detail

Has API

No

API docs

API detail

Core technology

AI maturity

App detail

Integration1 record

Feature5 records

Scale indicators17 records

Recent moves7 records

Expansion highlights5 records

Broad incumbents

• Adyen: Global payment processor offering unified online/offline payment infrastructure for merchants. Comparable as a sophisticated payment technology provider focused on enterprise merchant infrastructure, though targeting much larger enterprise merchants than Paymint's SMB base.
• Stripe: Global payment infrastructure provider offering merchant payment APIs and simplified payment processing. Comparable in product philosophy (developer-friendly payment infrastructure, transparent pricing) though at global scale rather than Korean domestic focus.
• Naver Pay: Payment service embedded in the Naver super-app ecosystem serving both consumers and merchants. Comparable as a deep-pocketed platform competitor in Korean online/offline SMB payments, though Naver Pay's distribution lever is Naver rather than KakaoTalk.
• Toss (Viva Republica): Korea's leading super-app fintech with a dominant consumer payment app and rapidly growing SMB payment/business banking services. Comparable as a competitive pressure on Paymint's SMB merchant base, though operating a much broader fintech suite.
• Samsung Pay: Major Korean mobile payment platform operated by Samsung with offline merchant acceptance and card-network partnerships. Comparable as a large incumbent in Korean payment acceptance and a potential counter-party or competitor for SMB merchant payment volume.

Regional players

• NHN (NHN Cloud / NHN Payment): Korean IT/payment conglomerate offering PG, payment gateway, and cloud-based financial services. Comparable as a Korean domestic payment infrastructure provider, though with a broader enterprise/government focus and a different merchant base than Paymint's SMB core.

Direct peers

• KSNet (Korea Smart Card): Major Korean VAN (value-added network) and payment processor providing card payment acquiring services to merchants. Directly comparable as part of the traditional PG/VAN ecosystem that Paymint's direct-approval model seeks to disintermediate.
• KG Inicis: One of Korea's largest traditional payment gateway providers, processing card payments for merchants. Directly comparable as Paymint competes by offering an alternative to the standard PG intermediary model that KG Inicis and others dominate.
• NICE Payments: Korean payment processor under NICE Group offering PG services, mobile payments, and merchant acquiring. Comparable as a traditional payment service provider competing for the same SMB merchant base in Korea.

Others

• KakaoPay: Parent company of Paymint and the dominant Korean messenger-based payment platform. Listed for context as the strategic acquirer controlling Paymint's roadmap and providing KakaoTalk integration; not a competitive peer but the key ecosystem partner.

Market position

Strengths5 records

Weaknesses5 records

Competitive moat5 records

Key risks7 records

Key highlights7 records

Customer concentration

• Facebookfacebook.com/paymint
• Instagraminstagram.com/paymint_official/?hl=ko
• Xx.com/paymint_inc

Revenue estimate

Valuation estimate

Number of profiles

Profiles3 records

Funding overview

Funding rounds2 records

Investors3 records

Funding detail is available on the Subscription and Enterprise plan.Contact sales →

M&A

Investments

M&A and investment is available on the Subscription and Enterprise plan.Contact sales →

Frequently asked questions about Paymint