Paul Allen

Technology & Software

Australia

Paul Allen is the co-founder of Pinch Payments, an Australian payments business he started with Ben Cull in 2017 and went on to lead as CEO. Headquartered in Brisbane, Pinch helps companies collect invoice payments through direct debit, credit cards and payment plans, with integrations into accounting platforms including Xero, QuickBooks and MYOB. The company also operates Glassbox, a platform that lets software providers embed payment processing directly into their products.

In April 2025, Pinch Payments was acquired by Fiserv, at which point it served around 2,000 merchants across Australia and New Zealand. Paul now holds the role of Director at Pinch Payments, a Fiserv company. On the acquisition, Paul described joining Fiserv as an incredible opportunity for the Pinch team, one that furthers its mission to provide seamless partner experiences to a growing number of merchants, and he expressed confidence in the roadmap to expand into new markets.

Paul sees particular potential in payments as a space for fast, meaningful building. He believes it is one of the few parts of a tech stack where a small team can genuinely ship something significant in a week, because the hard infrastructure problems are already solved.