What Way2Pay does

Way2Pay Limited is an Ireland-incorporated, privately held fintech (Company Number 541166) founded in 2013 and headquartered in Dublin, operating an online income collection platform targeted at Irish primary and secondary schools. The web-based system enables schools to upload student and parent data, create activity/event/product bills, and dispatch payment requests via SMS and email; parents access a secure hosted web payment page and pay using credit or debit cards. Core technical components include SMS-based payment authentication using the parent's mobile number as a username, credit-card tokenisation through Authipay (a PCI-compliant payment gateway), real-time dashboard updates for schools, instalment and part-payment support, and a Family Credit add-on that allows parents to prepay into a balance applied against school bills (not available to ETB schools). Payments flow through a partnership with BOI Payment Acceptance, and first-line customer support is outsourced to Three Ireland Services (Hutchison), so the in-house team focuses on product and sales rather than infrastructure or helpdesk.

The company monetises through a combination of recurring software/service subscription fees paid by schools (defined in customer Order Specifications) and per-transaction payment processing fees, with pricing negotiated via direct sales rather than publicly disclosed. Its go-to-market is sales-led, with founders Denise O'Grady (CEO) and John O'Grady (CFO) driving direct outreach to school administrators; institutional access is scaled through procurement agreements with Education and Training Boards (ETBs). The customer footprint as disclosed comprises 14 ETBs covering a combined 251 schools plus 215 individual schools directly using the platform — approximately 466 schools in total. The company is GDPR-compliant and is explicitly out of scope for direct PCI compliance because card data never touches its application.

Name

Way2Pay

Legal name

Way2pay Limited

Website

https://way2pay.org

Company type

Private

Founded year

2013

Operating status

Operating

Headcount range

11–50 employees

Short description

Way2Pay is an Irish online payment platform that enables primary and secondary schools to collect activity fees, contributions, and donations from parents via SMS-driven web payments. The company serves approximately 466 schools across Ireland, including 14 Education and Training Boards and 215 individual school customers.

Ownership category

akta.pro rank

Product category

Education Payment Processing

NAICS

Educational Services (611), Activities Related to Credit Intermediation (5223)

SIC

Finance Services (6199), Services-Educational Services (8200)

akta.pro primary industry

Payments, Cashiering & Payment Plans (EDALAJAE)

akta.pro secondary industry

Student Billing, Invoicing & Account Statements (EDALAJAC)

Keywords

• School payment platform
• Online income collection
• Cashless school payments
• Parent billing software
• Education payment processing

Headquarters

HQ city

Dublin

HQ country

Ireland

HQ region

Europe

Offices1 record

Markets served

GTM type

B2B

Offering type

Software

Cost components

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

Revenue model

1. Payment Processing Fees: Way2Pay charges schools fees for processing online payments. The company partners with BOI Payment Acceptance for payment processing infrastructure, with rates described as market leading. Schools pay fees for each transaction processed through the platform.
2. Software Subscription/Service Fees: Schools pay fees to the Supplier (Way2Pay) for access to the Software and Services as detailed in the Order Specification. Fees are defined in customer agreements and appear to be recurring in nature.

Go-to-market motion1 record

Distribution channels1 record

Marketing channels1 record

Core offering

Way2Pay provides a web-based income collection and payment processing platform that enables Irish schools to create activity, event, product and contribution/donation bills and collect payments from parents via SMS payment links and a hosted PCI-compliant payment page. Schools upload parent/student data, configure bills, and parents pay through credit or debit cards processed by Authipay and BOI Payment Acceptance, with optional Family Credit pre-paid balances for instalment-style school bill management.

Product overview

Way2Pay is a single, unified online income collection platform for schools, not a modular platform. The core product enables schools to register accounts, upload student and parent data, create activity bills, and send payment requests via SMS and email to parents. Parents receive payment links and can pay bills online using credit or debit cards through a secure hosted payment page. An add-on feature called Family Credit allows parents to pre-pay into a credit balance for flexible bill management throughout the school year. Payment processing is handled through integrated third-party payment gateways (Authipay for card tokenisation and BOI Payment Acceptance for payment processing).

Differentiator

Problem solved

Functional benefit

Products and services

• Way2Pay Online Income Collection Platform

Named customers3 records

Segments3 records

Ideal customer profiles2 records

Technology focussed Yes

API detail

Has API

No

API docs

API detail

Core technology

AI maturity

App detail

Integration2 records

Feature4 records

Partnerships

Three partnerships are on record, tiered core.

• BOI Payment AcceptancecoreTechnology or IntegrationWay2Pay partners with BOI Payment Acceptance to provide payment processing capabilities. BOI Payment Acceptance provides the underlying payment processing infrastructure and market leading payment processing rates for the Way2Pay platform, enabling schools to accept credit and debit card payments.
• Three Ireland Services (Hutchison) LimitedcoreTechnology or IntegrationThree Ireland serves as the First Line Support Provider for Way2Pay, providing initial technical support and helpdesk services for both schools and end users (parents) experiencing software issues or general usage queries.
• AuthipaycoreTechnology or IntegrationAuthipay is the payment gateway provider that handles credit card tokenisation and secure payment processing for the Way2Pay platform. When parents choose to tokenise their card details, Authipay stores the information securely and retrieves it for subsequent payments.

Scale indicators4 records

Recent moves6 records

Expansion highlights3 records

Direct peers

• ParentPay: ParentPay is the UK's leading online payment service for schools, enabling parents to pay for school meals, trips, uniforms, and activities. It is the closest direct competitor to Way2Pay, sharing the school-payment specialisation and parent-billing workflow.
• Scopay: Scopay is a UK school payments platform that lets parents pay for trips, meals and activities online via a school-branded portal. It directly mirrors Way2Pay's school-fee collection use case and target customer.
• SchoolCash Online (KEV Group): SchoolCash Online by KEV Group is a school-focused online payment and permission-form platform used by Canadian and US school districts. It competes head-to-head with Way2Pay in K-12 fee and activity payments.
• iPayimpact: iPayimpact is an online payment platform for schools covering trips, events, meals and donations. It overlaps directly with Way2Pay's activity-fee and contribution collection use case in the UK market.

Broad incumbents

• Stripe: Stripe is a global payment-processing platform that schools and school-payment vendors can use to accept card payments. While not school-specialised, its SMS pay-link and dashboard capabilities overlap with Way2Pay's underlying payment infrastructure.
• Square (Block): Square provides payment processing and invoicing tools used by schools, clubs and SMBs. It is a broad incumbent that can be configured to handle school fee collection, analogous to Way2Pay's payment-plus-invoicing role.

Emerging players

• GoCardless: GoCardless provides direct debit and recurring payment infrastructure widely used by schools and SMBs for collecting recurring fees. It competes with Way2Pay for instalment and recurring school collections.
• Tessitura Network: Tessitura-style online payment and ticketing platforms serve clubs, societies and community organisations, the same adjacent customer segments Way2Pay's terms permit. They represent comparable community-organisation payment SaaS models.

Regional players

• VSware: VSware is an Irish school management information system (MIS) widely used by post-primary schools. As a regional Irish education software provider, it represents a potential channel or competitor for embedded school payments.
• Aladdin Schools (Scomis): Aladdin is a school MIS used across Irish primary schools and is increasingly integrated with payment features. It is comparable to Way2Pay in serving the Irish school administrative workflow and could either partner with or compete against Way2Pay.

Market position

Strengths5 records

Weaknesses5 records

Competitive moat4 records

Key risks6 records

Key highlights7 records

Customer concentration

Compliance2 records

Revenue estimate

Valuation estimate

Number of profiles

Profiles2 records

Funding overview

Funding rounds3 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 Way2Pay