Payments & Fintech Acquisitions in 2019

Talus Payments, a portfolio company of A&M Capital Partners, completed three add-on acquisitions in 2019: MSP Consulting, LLC (Overland Park, KS), Merchant Services, LTD (Miami, FL) and ValuPlus Merchants Association, Inc. (Denver/Greenwood Village, CO). The transactions expand Talus's go-to-market channels, increase its higher-settled-volume merchant accounts, and brought management teams from the targets into Talus post-closing.

Polskie ePłatności S.A. completed the acquisition of BillBird S.A. on 25 November 2019. The deal adds BillBird's bill payment and value-added services for POS terminals and e-commerce to PeP's payments offering to expand product capabilities and encourage consumer visits to merchants.

Newtek Business Services Corp. acquired a 51% majority interest in POS on Cloud (d/b/a Newtek Payment Systems), a Kentucky-based cloud point-of-sale (POS) software provider. Newtek will integrate and offer the POS solution through its alliance partners and portfolio channels to expand its payments, payroll and SMB services offering.

Lock Trust, Inc. acquired Phoenix-based video platform Advisor TLC to integrate One-Click Video marketing capabilities into its payments and banking technology. The acquisition is intended to add automated video marketing within Lock Trust’s payment engine to drive growth in the small-to-medium merchant market; Advisor TLC co-founder Andrew Spaulding joins the Lock Trust team.

BlueSnap, a payments technology provider backed by private equity, acquired Armatic, an accounts receivable and invoicing automation provider, to expand its quote-to-payment capabilities for B2B customers. The acquisition integrates Armatic's invoicing, subscription and AR automation into BlueSnap's global payments platform to provide an end-to-end quote-to-payment solution.

Payroc LLC has entered into a definitive agreement to merge with Payscape, NXGEN International and BluePay Canada in a Parthenon Capital‑sponsored transaction that creates a global merchant acquirer and payment facilitator operating in 46 countries. The combined company will operate under an enhanced Payroc brand, serving more than 55,000 merchants, processing roughly $23 billion in annual bankcard volume and employing more than 1,000 people across the U.S., Canada and international markets.

New State Capital Partners completed a recapitalization of Global Holdings (Global Holdings Acquisition, LLC) supported by a senior credit facility arranged by Comvest Credit Partners. Global Holdings is a payment and account processing provider to the U.S. consumer debt settlement industry and was highlighted for its recurring revenue and long-standing client relationships.

Repay Holdings Corporation (NASDAQ: RPAY) acquired APS Payments, a Mesa, Arizona-based B2B integrated payments provider, for $60 million (with $30 million paid at closing and up to $30 million in performance-based earnouts). The deal expands Repay's presence in the B2B payments vertical, adds ERP integrations and technology capabilities, and is expected to be immediately accretive to earnings.

NVM Private Equity Vintage III LP has completed a management buy-out of Leicestershire-based Secure Retail Limited, a provider of electronic payment hardware, software and managed services. NVM will support Secure Retail’s product and growth strategy as the payments market modernises and demand for card and contactless solutions increases.

Montreal-based payments company Nuvei, supported by private equity firm Novacap and institutional investor CDPQ, completed the acquisition of SafeCharge International Group Limited for US $889 million, privatizing the AIM-listed business. The deal combines SafeCharge's payments technology, card acquiring and risk management capabilities with Nuvei's distribution and scale, with Montreal becoming the combined organization's worldwide headquarters.

Capital One agreed to acquire BlueTarp Financial from private equity owner Long Ridge Equity Partners in a deal announced in mid‑2019 and expected to close in Q3 2019. The acquisition expands Capital One’s B2B trade‑credit and servicing capabilities by bringing BlueTarp’s credit management and trade‑credit platform and client relationships (including building‑products distribution) into Capital One.

ZipLine, a mobile payment and rewards technology platform, has acquired SmartClixx, a Boca Raton-based gift card and stored-value payment software provider. The acquisition brings gift card issuance and stored-value processing capabilities into ZipLine’s merchant payments and loyalty offering to expand its payments and rewards product suite.

Advent International has agreed to acquire Transaction Services Group (TSG) from Calera Capital; terms were not disclosed. TSG is a global payments and revenue management solutions provider that grew processing volume to about $4 billion and serves over five million end customers across health & fitness, education and other verticals.

Celero Commerce acquired Elmhurst Financial Services and Tandem Innovative Payment Solutions to expand its distribution and technology capabilities for financial institutions and SMB merchants. The transactions strengthen Celero's payment processing, business management software, and technology offerings and extend its service footprint to approximately 25,000 merchants and ~$10 billion in annual payment volume.

Serent Capital has made a growth investment in Payliance, a payments processing, recovery, and risk management provider serving lenders and retail merchants. The partnership will provide Payliance with capital and Serent’s operating resources to scale the company’s payments platform and expand its market presence.

ConnectOne Bancorp (ConnectOne Bank) has completed its acquisition of BoeFly, an online small-business lending marketplace and fintech platform based in New York. The acquisition brings BoeFly's digital lending marketplace, patented technology and team into ConnectOne to expand the bank's digital strategy and diversify revenue streams.

InComm, a payments and technology provider headquartered in Atlanta, acquired Hallmark Business Connections, the B2B incentives subsidiary of Hallmark Cards. The acquisition expands InComm’s loyalty and incentives offerings by adding Hallmark’s integrated physical and digital gift card and employee engagement program capabilities, serving Fortune 500 clients across healthcare, banking and hospitality.

Shiji Group has acquired MyCheck, an Israeli mobile payment and hospitality integration platform, from O.G. Tech (the technology investment vehicle of Eyal Ofer). The deal adds MyCheck's guest payment, digital check-in/out and dining-pay solutions to Shiji's global hospitality technology portfolio and aims to accelerate product integration and expand payment connectivity for hotels and restaurants worldwide.

NXGEN International has acquired Paducah, Kentucky-based payments firm Payment Plus, Inc. The deal expands NXGEN's merchant services footprint and product capabilities in Kentucky and the Midwest, with Payment Plus's CEO Tammy Zimmerman remaining to lead the business under NXGEN ownership.

Mastercard acquired Transactis, a payments and bill-pay services provider, to strengthen its bill payment capabilities. Safeguard Scientifics, a Transactis investor, received approximately $57 million in cash proceeds from the transaction.

Appliqate (APQT) has acquired CentsApp, a Utah-based online bill-pay and debt reduction platform. Appliqate said it will integrate CentsApp with its Compchain/Compcoin cryptocurrency payments platform to enable consumers to pay bills using crypto and fiat, expanding Appliqate’s payments and fintech capabilities.

Pollen Street Capital has acquired UK-based corporate foreign exchange specialist Infinity International and will merge it with portfolio company Foreign Currency Direct as part of a newly created payments group that also includes Pure FX. The deal expands Pollen Street's corporate FX capability and enhances the Group's cross-border payments offering to UK and European business customers.

Parthenon Capital backed the merger of NXGEN International and Payscape to form a combined global payments provider serving small- and mid-market merchants, SaaS partners and financial institutions. The combined company will operate in roughly 75 countries, process over $10 billion in annual payment volume and serve more than 20,000 merchants, with a strategic focus on product breadth, SaaS integrations and further acquisitive growth.

An affiliate of The Beekman Group (Beekman Investment Partners III, LP) completed a majority recapitalization of Utah-based Convenient Payments LLC, providing growth equity to support expansion of the company's software-based payment solutions. The investment will fund product and team growth as Convenient Payments scales its payment platforms for customers in government, education, and medical sectors.

Paysafe Group acquired MeritCard Solutions (MeritCard Solutions, LP), a Dallas-based merchant account provider, in 2016. MeritCard has since been fully absorbed into the Paysafe brand and its website now redirects to Paysafe's homepage.

Prepaid Technologies acquired the dash purchasing card portfolio and select assets from San Francisco-based Karmic Labs, closing the deal on March 1, 2019. The acquisition more than doubles Prepaid Technologies' purchasing card portfolio and adds an expense management platform and several Karmic team members to Prepaid Technologies' operations.

Mid-market private equity investor LDC has taken a significant minority stake in Evolution Funding in a transaction that values the business at £110 million. The deal is backed by acquisition finance from Santander and Aviva Investors; Evolution will remain led by its co-founders and will use the capital to scale its Evolve technology, expand its dealer and direct-to-consumer propositions, and grow its UK presence.

Westshore Capital Partners has acquired Reliant Account Management, LLC, a Knoxville-based third-party payment processor and trust accounting company. Capitala Group provided $30.0 million of senior secured debt and equity to support Westshore’s acquisition, financing the transaction to enable the sponsor buyout and capability expansion into payment and trust accounting services for debt relief, legal and medical industries.