RouteSense, a payments-focused data analytics company, launched publicly alongside an approximately $2 million pre-seed round led by Redbud VC with participation from FOVC, Cultivation Capital, Service Provider Capital, and the University of Missouri AACE Fund.
The company is debuting Pathfinder, a MID health analytics and transaction routing platform designed for merchants that operate multiple approved merchant accounts. RouteSense says the product is built to provide a unified intelligence layer by consolidating fragmented payments data across the transaction lifecycle to deliver near-real-time visibility for merchants, processors, and acquirers.
Pathfinder continuously evaluates merchant account performance using network-defined health indicators and approval trends, then uses current conditions to direct transactions toward MIDs with available capacity. RouteSense positions the approach as an alternative to static rules and delayed reporting common in orchestration workflows, aiming to enable dynamic allocation aligned with existing card network frameworks.
The launch comes as the company points to heightened scrutiny and the need for persistent MID health visibility, particularly as Visa’s Visa Acquiring Monitoring Program enforcement raises the stakes for timely insight and intervention. RouteSense argues that legacy systems often surface issues weeks after underlying activity occurs, while near-real-time visibility can help teams identify deteriorating trends earlier and take corrective action before problems escalate into fines, holds, or forced account actions.
RouteSense’s broader roadmap is to become an operating intelligence layer for acquirers globally, offering continuous portfolio visibility, predictive risk signals, and lifecycle MID health management through a modern data infrastructure. The company said it is currently onboarding select merchants, acquirers, payment service providers, and processors.
RouteSense was founded by Stephen Martin, Robert Matthews, and Colin Martin, a team the company says brings more than 75 years of combined experience across acquiring, PayFac infrastructure, dispute technology, and real-time analytics. Matthews previously led engineering at Midigator, a chargeback and dispute management platform acquired by Equifax, where he later oversaw global disputes engineering, according to the company.
KEY QUOTES:
“As network oversight becomes more stringent, the industry needs better intelligence, not more guesswork. Our mission is to help teams understand MID health at a glance so they can act proactively and responsibly.”
Stephen Martin, CEO, RouteSense
“Regulation, fraud behavior, and dispute dynamics have all evolved. With VAMP now actively enforced, compliance depends on timely, accurate insight. Pathfinder gives merchants with multiple MIDs the clarity they need to manage portfolio health while maintaining strong authorization performance.”
Colin Martin, COO, RouteSense
“In payments, the difference between reactive and predictive analytics is material. Reactive reporting explains what happened after the fact. Predictive intelligence helps teams make better decisions in real time.”
Robert Matthews, CTO, RouteSense
