Boal’s relevance to pmtbox extends beyond capital markets credibility. At Coupons.com, his team spent years building the fraud controls and print security that persuaded consumer goods manufacturers, including Procter and Gamble, Unilever and Clorox, to accept digital coupons in place of paper. At CashStar, his co-founder on that board journey was Pete Kledaras, now co-founder and chief technology officer of pmtbox, who built CashStar’s payments and fraud management infrastructure. A notable feature of that platform was acting as the risk-bearing merchant of record for 350 global retailers, absorbing liability for high-risk digital transactions on behalf of clients including The Home Depot and CVS/pharmacy.

That shared history between Boal and Kledaras is central to the announcement. “I was in Maine building CashStar’s payments infrastructure while Steven chaired the company from Mountain View, so I’ve seen how he operates when real money is on the line,” said Kledaras. “Merchants have spent years treating fraud and chargebacks as a cost someone else sets for them, and as an annoying hurdle for consumers. Steven understands why that has to change.”

Boal framed the commercial problem pmtbox is trying to solve in direct terms: most merchants treat payments as a rate negotiated once, then discover that fraud, chargebacks and disputes make the real cost substantially higher, often without realising how conversion rates are simultaneously being eroded.

The problem pmtbox is addressing is genuine and growing. Card-not-present fraud and chargeback abuse have both risen as digital commerce has expanded, and merchants operating across multiple payment processors and fraud tools routinely lack a unified view of their true transaction economics.

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