Freely Payments
Founded 2023 · 5 employees on LinkedIn · 2 known investors
Freely is a fintech company building payment acceptance solutions focused on food vendors and their customers, including restaurants and food distributors. It emphasizes compliance, security, and financial reliability in serving the food and beverage industry.
Also known as freely · freely Payments · Freely Payments · Freely Payments Inc. · Freely Payments, LLC
Founders & leadership
Freely Payments was founded in 2023 by Ahmed Nawash.
Investors · 2
Company profile
researched Aug 2026Freely Payments Inc. ("freely") is a Washington, D.C.-based financial technology company that provides card acceptance and B2B payments infrastructure for the food and beverage distribution industry. Its platform comprises the Freely app, Freely Accept and Freely Pay, and targets wholesale and broadline food distributors and the restaurants and other foodservice operators that buy from them.
The company's core proposition is that distributors can accept credit card payments from their customers without paying processing fees. Through the freely acceptance™ program, Freely combines direct card network relationships, exclusive Mastercard and Visa rates and intelligent routing to reduce processing costs to near zero, and pays merchants cash back on card volume. Additional platform functions include automated receivables, automated reconciliation with ERP integration, accelerated settlement (distributors can be funded before their customers pay), reduced days sales outstanding and elimination of credit risk. Distributors do not have to switch payment processors to use the service.
On the buyer side, Freely offers restaurants a distributor-branded credit card intended as a working capital tool, with a 30-day interest-free float, money market rates of 5%, rewards points and early-pay discounts. The company states its platform is compliant with PCI, SSAE 16 and HIPAA standards.
Founding story
Freely Payments was founded by Ahmed Nawash, who serves as Founder and CEO and is described as having a decade of experience in corporate development and fintech partnerships, together with co-founder and COO Brandon O'Connor, described as a specialist in business banking and product strategy. The company is presented as being built by operators with backgrounds spanning payments, food distribution and financial technology, addressing distributors' reluctance to accept card payments because of processing fees that erode margins.
Business model
Freely operates a B2B payments gateway for food and beverage distributors. Rather than charging merchants processing fees, it partners directly with card networks and uses exclusive Mastercard and Visa rates plus intelligent transaction routing to bring distributor processing costs to near zero, while distributors also earn cash back on card transactions. Distributors retain their existing payment processor, and Freely handles merchant billing, settling and management. On the buyer side, Freely offers restaurants a co-branded credit card (freely pay™) that functions as a working capital tool with a 30-day interest-free float, money market rates of 5%, points and rewards, and early-pay discounts.
The company markets card acceptance to food distributors at no processing cost and pays cash back on transactions; associated products include a co-branded credit card program for restaurant buyers with early-pay discounts and interest-free terms. Freely states it works with direct card network relationships and intelligent routing to compress processing costs.
Traction
Freely has secured distribution through several foodservice organizations: approval as a UniPro Foodservice supplier (October 2025), preferred payments partner status with Enterprise Café (November 2025), a strategic supplier partnership with Frosty Acres Brands (January 2026), and an affiliation with IFDA. It was selected for Mastercard's Start Path open banking program for small businesses and reports that early adopters have seen faster settlements and reduced accounts-receivable friction.
Latest developments
In January 2026 Freely Payments announced a strategic supplier partnership with Frosty Acres Brands, a member-owned foodservice purchasing and marketing cooperative founded in 1954 that unites independent distributors in the U.S., Canada and elsewhere, giving members access to Freely's near-zero-fee card acceptance, cash flow acceleration, A/R automation and cashback tools. This followed the November 2025 designation as Enterprise Café's preferred payments partner and the October 2025 approval as a UniPro Foodservice supplier.
▸Full profile — market position, technology, go-to-market, geography, history
Market position
Freely Payments competes in B2B payments for the foodservice supply chain, describing itself as a Mastercard-backed fintech and as the first broadline distributor processor to offer merchants cash back for accepting credit cards. Its channel relationships give it access to large distributor networks, including UniPro Foodservice's 450+ members operating 900+ locations serving more than 800,000 customers, and Enterprise Café's base of 80+ distributors in North America and the Caribbean. It has been listed as a fintech portfolio company of seed investor SpringTime Ventures and profiled in the INNOVATE® Washington DMV edition.
Freely positions itself as the first broadline distributor processor to pay merchants cash back for accepting credit cards, inverting the usual fee model. It emphasizes direct card network partnership (describing itself as Mastercard-backed), exclusive Mastercard and Visa rates with intelligent routing to minimize interchange and processing costs, no requirement to change existing payment processors, and a product built specifically for high-volume B2B foodservice distribution transactions rather than general-purpose merchant acquiring.
Technology
Freely operates a B2B payments gateway with intelligent routing that processes each transaction at the lowest available cost, automated receivables and reconciliation, ERP integration, accelerated settlement, and real-time oversight. Its platform includes the Freely app, Freely Accept and Freely Pay, and is described as compliant with PCI, SSAE 16 and HIPAA standards.
Go-to-market
The company sells through foodservice distribution channel partners and cooperatives rather than solely direct: it has been approved as a supplier to UniPro Foodservice's member distributors, named preferred payments partner of the Enterprise Café analytics platform (accessible via a link on the Enterprise Café page), and signed on as a strategic supplier partner to Frosty Acres Brands, in addition to an affiliation with IFDA. Prospective customers are directed to request a demo or contact the company via its website and hello@freelypayments.com. Distributors in turn extend the payment and card products to their restaurant customers.
Wholesale, broadline and independent foodservice distributors and their customers, including independent restaurants, multi-unit chains, healthcare facilities and schools.
Geography
Freely Payments is headquartered in Washington, D.C., and serves foodservice distributors and their customers across the United States through national distribution cooperatives and partner networks.
History
Public company communications describe Freely Payments as founded by industry veterans with backgrounds in payments, food distribution and fintech. The company reported selection into Mastercard's Start Path open banking/SMB program and, in 2024, described an upcoming Q4 2024 launch of its freely pay™ co-branded card program. Through late 2025 and into 2026, it announced a series of foodservice distribution channel relationships: approval as a UniPro Foodservice supplier (October 2025), designation as Enterprise Café's preferred payments partner (November 2025), and a strategic supplier partnership with Frosty Acres Brands (January 2026), alongside an affiliation with IFDA.
Compiled by commissioned research from 14 cited public sources — announcements, filings, and press listed under research sources below.
Key figures
latest reportedCompany-reported or press-reported figures, each dated to when it was claimed — not independently audited.
Timeline · 6
launches, deals, and filingsFreely Payments became a strategic supplier partner of Frosty Acres Brands, a member-owned foodservice purchasing and marketing cooperative of independent distributors, extending its payment solutions to the cooperative's owner-distributor network.
Enterprise Café, a sales analytics/BI SaaS provider serving 80+ foodservice and specialty distributors in North America and the Caribbean, named Freely Payments its preferred payments partner, with access provided through a link on the Enterprise Café page.
UniPro Foodservice, a U.S. food distribution cooperative with over 450 members operating 900+ distribution locations, approved Freely Payments as a supplier, making its card acceptance and B2B payments gateway available to member distributors.
Freely was selected to participate in Mastercard's Start Path SMB (open banking) program for small business innovation.
Arlington, Virginia named Freely Payments, LLC one of five Arlington-based startups awarded non-dilutive, co-investment Catalyst Grants under the Arlington Innovation Fund; the program distributed $225,000 across the cohort in grants ranging from $25,000 to $50,000.
Company described an upcoming Q4 2024 launch of freely pay™, a co-branded credit card program with zero processing fees, cash back for vendors on customer purchases, early-pay discounts and interest-free terms.
Dated company events from announcements, filings, and press; legal rows summarize public dockets and regulator releases.
▸Research sources · 14
primary sources listed
- Freely Paymentsfreelypayments.com · web
- Freely Seeks to Expand Product Features with Catalyst Grant Arlington, Virginiaarlingtoneconomicdevelopment.com · web
14 public sources were cited for this profile; the first-party ones are listed here.
Frequently asked questions
- What does Freely Payments do?
- Washington, D.C. fintech offering food distributors near-zero-fee card acceptance with cash back and automated receivables.
- Who founded Freely Payments?
- Freely Payments was founded by Ahmed Nawash in 2023.
- Who are Freely Payments's investors?
- Freely Payments's investors include Fika, Range VC.