PublicSquare Taps Klarna Vet Billingsley to Promote ‘Uncancellable’ Payments

PublicSquare, the self-described “patriotic” marketplace, is entering the payments space.

The company announced Monday (March 18) it had hired former Klarna USA CEO Brian Billingsley to serve as president of its payments subsidiary, PSQ Payments, its “uncancellable payments solution.”

Billingsley brings with him more than 15 years of experience in the payments, eCommerce and consumer credit space. He is also the co-founder of Basis Theory, “a fully programmable vault for independently controlling payment data,” PublicSquare said in a news release.

CEO Michael Seifert said Billingsley’s hiring would help the company build and scale its payments ecosystem.

“Our development of PSQ Payments and its associated technology is one more step on our journey to owning the infrastructure foundational to the parallel economy,” Seifert said.

“Combined with the power of our Credova subsidiary, PSQ Payments will position us to monetize our marketplace transactions further, provide what we expect to be a best-of-breed checkout experience, and protect our merchants and customers from cancellation.”

Credova is a buy now, pay later (BNPL) company catering to the “shooting sports and firearms” industries, acquired by PublicSquare last week.

“They’re helping make the second amendment more accessible to a broader network of Americans, which I certainly personally view as a very moral cause and appreciate the work that they do,” Seifer said during a recent earnings call.

As PYMNTS noted at the time of PublicSquare’s launch in November, the “parallel economy” is one that does not include brands or products that PublicSquare considers “woke,” instead focusing on “70,000 values-aligned businesses.”

“As mainstream corporate America increasingly pushes the progressive agenda of equity, inclusivity, climate activism, and more, PublicSq. seeks to promote the constitutional values this nation was founded on,” the company wrote on its blog in October.

PublicSquare has been championed by ex-Fox News host Tucker Carlson, while Seifert appeared with Republican Congressman Matt Gaetz and Donald Trump, Jr. at the company’s town hall event last month.

The blog also includes a regular feature called “Buy Ditch,” asking customers to shop its approved brands and avoid companies like Kellogg, Tampax, Starbucks and Skullcandy due to their support for organizations like Planned Parenthood and for anti-racism, pro-LGBTQ causes.

More recently, it called on its users to move away from Temu, pointing to allegations of forced labor connected to its supply chains.