The Japanese startup Exchange Corp. has launched a new up-front payment service for online retailers called Paidy as it closes on $3.3 million in new financing. Launched by Russell Cummer, a former trader with Goldman Sachs in Japan, Exchange Corp. began as a peer-to-peer lending service in Tokyo, but is expanding to offer up-front payments as the market for those services begins to blossom in Asia. “I left Goldman to start Exchange Corp. as a peer-to-peer lender [and] we’ve lent about $15 million, but the gating agent has been identifying qualified lenders,” Cummer says. The pivot to Paidy takes advantage of the work that Exchange Corp. had already done to identify creditworthy borrowers, and couples it with a financing platform that has already loaned $15 million through its peer-to-peer network.

http://techcrunch.com/2014/07/29/exchange-corp-launches-cardless-payment-service-with-3-3-million-series-a/