What the business is
ORNG is a payments network letting banks, fintech companies and large businesses move money across countries instantly through a single API.
The bet
That one API unifying each country's fast-payment rails can move enterprise money across borders instantly — 'like sending a message but for enterprises.'
Starting capital
Phood raised around $5M in total; ORNG is using leftover Phood capital and is fundraising, with a close planned in the coming months.
How it started
Alex Parmley launched Phood in 2018, letting students spend dining dollars at third-party merchants; it built the first campus-integrated debit card and worked with colleges like UT-Austin.
What happened
After six years Parmley pivoted the company, renamed it ORNG, and pitched the financial contacts from Phood on the bigger idea. Motivate Venture Capital, a Phood investor, doubled down. Twelve employees; co-founders Matt Waymouth and Jake Westmoreland left to start a company and a family.
What has to be true
The old business paid vendors today for money it would collect in 15-30 days — a debt facility made that survivable, inflation made it expensive.
Parmley judged the campus market was getting harder to defend: staying meant a real possibility of being squeezed out.
The pivot reuses the exact pain: the same slow settlement that nearly sank Phood is the problem ORNG now sells against.
Phood's existing investors encouraged the pivot, giving the new bet funded runway instead of a cold start.
What can be applied
Your customer's payment lag is your working-capital problem: Phood learned B2B money movement's pace from the inside, then pivoted to fix it.
Aftermath
As of September 14, 2024, ORNG was out of stealth with a few clients including publicly traded companies, twelve employees, a fundraising round in progress with a close planned in the coming months, and one co-founder and attorney, Jackson Killion, still aboard from the Phood days.
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