Amaryllis Was Founded on Demand and a Good Idea

 

Companies are like superheroes in that they all have an origin story, explaining how they started and began to build something meaningful. In this episode of the Software and Technology Podcast, host Tyler Kern sat down with Amaryllis Payment Solutions co-founders Ori Hay and Adi Ekshtain. They discuss their origin story and how the two recognized the demand for third-party aggregators in payment services that would revolutionize the industry.

Before co-founding Amaryllis with Ekshtain, Hay spent more than a decade working in credit card processing services and saw the coming wave of e-commerce transactions. “I recognized that this is where things are going to go,” he said.

When Ekshtain wanted to create a third-party payment processing partner for e-commerce, he turned to Hay, a noted developer, patent holder, and expert in FinTech.

“I thought it was a very smart idea and it came at the right time,” Ekshtain said.

The two partnered to build a dot net software for payments, the first commercially-viable mobile face-to-face payment solution.

“Back then with Microsoft, there was nothing to build real infrastructure on,” Hay said. “Since Adi is the technology guy, he came to me saying there’s a new thing called dot net.”

Ekshtain continued, “We struck a partnership with the Microsoft technology center. Together with them, we built the first-ever payment gateway built on Microsoft dot net technology. That proved to us we could build an economically-viable software, and it allowed Microsoft to have a case study of a financial system that is mission-critical.”

In this episode, Ekshtain and Hay also discussed the significance of the platform’s flexibility, the uniqueness of the payment solution, and how competition has followed their lead.

For the latest news, videos, and podcasts in the Software & Electronics Industry, be sure to subscribe to our industry publication.

Follow us on social media for the latest updates in B2B!
Twitter – @TechMKSL
Facebook – facebook.com/marketscale
LinkedIn – linkedin.com/company/marketscale

Follow us on social media for the latest updates in B2B!

Image

Latest

Radar
Physical Retail’s Next Infrastructure Layer: Item-Level Intelligence with Radar
June 4, 2026

Physical retail is under pressure to become as measurable and responsive as e-commerce. While retailers have spent years optimizing digital channels with real-time data, store teams have often had to make decisions with incomplete inventory visibility and delayed operational signals. That gap matters because stores still account for 80% of U.S. retail sales, making…

Read More
Healthcare in Pakistan
From Institutional Excellence to Population-Level Access: How Pakistan Can Bridge Its Healthcare Divide
June 1, 2026

Healthcare systems are under pressure almost everywhere, but the strain is especially visible in lower-resource settings where demand is rising faster than infrastructure. In Pakistan, that pressure is playing out across a system that has to serve more than 250 million people with limited public investment. Public health spending remains below 1% of GDP,…

Read More
Engineering
Scaling Experiential Learning in the Curriculum: How Iron Range Engineering Transformed Engineering Education
June 1, 2026

Engineering has transformed nearly every part of modern life, from the phones in our pockets to the systems powering global industry. But the way engineers are educated has often moved far more slowly than the profession itself. Employers are asking for graduates who can navigate ambiguity, communicate across teams, and contribute meaningfully from the…

Read More
vascular surgeon
When Geography Meets Purpose: How One Move Reshaped a Vascular Surgeon’s Career
May 28, 2026

Medicine isn’t what it used to be—not for the people practicing it. Independent physicians are becoming the exception, not the norm, as more doctors move into hospital systems, corporate groups, and academic networks. At the same time, the pipeline of specialists isn’t keeping pace with growing patient needs, particularly in complex fields like vascular…

Read More