Payments & Fintech Acquisitions in 2020

Rent-A-Center, Inc. (NASDAQ: RCII) has entered into a definitive agreement to acquire Acima Holdings LLC for $1.273 billion in cash plus approximately 10.8 million Rent‑A‑Center shares (valued at about $377 million). The deal—expected to close in H1 2021—adds Acima’s virtual lease-to-own fintech capabilities and national retail/e‑commerce partnerships to accelerate Rent‑A‑Center’s omnichannel LTO platform and long-term growth.

Fiserv, a global provider of financial services technology, signed a definitive agreement to acquire Ondot Systems, a digital experience platform for financial institutions that powers card-level digital services and transaction enrichment. The acquisition expands Fiserv's digital capabilities—particularly real-time authorization, AI-driven contextual engagement, and card services—to help clients deliver frictionless, personalized payment and banking experiences. Financial terms were not disclosed; the transaction was expected to close in Q1 2021 subject to customary approvals.

GoDaddy Inc. agreed to acquire Poynt to integrate in-person point-of-sale, payments and commerce capabilities into its Websites + Marketing and WordPress commerce offerings. The deal pays $320 million cash at close plus up to $45 million in deferred cash and is expected to contribute more than $150 million of bookings in 2023; Poynt CEO Osama Bedier will join GoDaddy to lead a new Commerce Division.

Searchlight Capital Partners has made a strategic growth investment in Sightline Payments, establishing a post-money valuation of $525 million. Sightline management also participated as co-investors; the capital will support expansion of Sightline’s cashless payment and wallet solutions across gaming, sports betting, lottery and hospitality markets.

Foley Trasimene Acquisition Corp. II has entered into a definitive merger agreement to combine with Paysafe Group Holdings Limited, creating a publicly listed Paysafe (PSFE) with an implied pro-forma enterprise value of approximately $9 billion. The transaction includes a $2.0 billion private placement (PIPE) from multiple institutional and private investors and is intended to de-lever the company and accelerate Paysafe's growth and M&A strategy.

Affirm entered into a definitive agreement to acquire PayBright, one of Canada’s leading buy-now-pay-later providers, for approximately CAD $340 million. The acquisition expands Affirm’s presence in Canada by combining PayBright’s merchant relationships and local market expertise with Affirm’s U.S. pay-over-time platform.

Greater Sum Ventures (GSV), an entrepreneurial family office and growth equity investor, made a majority investment in Orlando-based payments technology provider Fattmerchant to fund product innovation and accelerate growth. Fattmerchant will continue to be led by CEO Suneera Madhani and the founding team while leveraging GSV's capital and operational support to expand its Omni and Omni Connect offerings for ISVs and SMB merchants.

Mogo Inc. (TSX: MOGO; NASDAQ: MOGO) agreed to acquire Carta Solutions Holding Corporation (doing business as Carta Worldwide) in an all‑stock plan of arrangement to expand into the global B2B digital payments market. The acquisition — reported at about C$24.2 million — gives Mogo a payments technology platform and broadens its addressable market into global digital payments.

Payroc WorldAccess, LLC acquired Bluestone Payments, LLC, an independent sales organization (ISO) founded by Linda Rossetti, to grow its sales organization and expand merchant referral relationships. Payroc — a merchant acquirer backed by private equity firm Parthenon Capital — will retain Rossetti as President of Bluestone and expand her role as EVP, Strategic Partnerships at Payroc.

Platform Partners LLC, a Houston-based private holding company, completed an investment in E-xact Payments, a payments gateway and processing services provider founded in 1999. Payments executive Rahul Gupta invested alongside Platform and will serve as Chairman while Platform and the company hire senior payments leaders and invest in technology and people to expand E-xact’s service offering.

Blackhawk Network has completed the acquisition of National Gift Card (NGC), a Crystal Lake, Illinois-based provider of technology-enabled prepaid and gift card solutions. The seller was Longshore Capital Partners (in conjunction with LaSalle Capital); the deal expands Blackhawk's prepaid, fulfillment and program-management capabilities and integrates NGC's fulfillment operations and customer base into Blackhawk's global branded-payments platform.

Alliance Data Systems Corporation agreed to acquire Bread, a technology-driven buy-now-pay-later and digital payments platform, for approximately $450 million (including about $100 million in Alliance Data common stock). The deal, announced Oct. 29, 2020 and expected to close in Q4 2020, adds Bread’s pay-over-time capabilities, roughly 185 employees and 400+ merchant clients to Alliance Data’s payments and marketing suite.

Celero Commerce, a PE-backed vertically focused commerce solutions provider, acquired TransNational Payments, a provider of electronic payments technology and business-management SaaS. The deal expands Celero's merchant and financial-institution footprint—bringing the combined company to roughly 40,000 merchants and more than $14 billion in card volume processed annually—and adds proprietary SaaS capabilities and distribution channels to Celero's platform.

Visa Inc. signed a definitive agreement to acquire YellowPepper, a Miami-based fintech that provides API-based payment orchestration and real-time payment solutions across Latin America and the Caribbean. The deal is intended to accelerate Visa's "network of networks" strategy by integrating YellowPepper's multi-rail connectivity, identity and routing tools to speed time-to-market and lower integration costs for issuers, processors and governments.

REPAY Holdings Corporation agreed to acquire Atlanta-based CPS Payment Services for up to $93 million, with $78 million paid at closing and up to $15 million in earnouts. The acquisition expands REPAY's B2B payments and accounts-payable automation capabilities and brings CPS's enterprise client base and ERP-integrated AP automation technology into REPAY's product suite.

Global investment firm The Carlyle Group has agreed to acquire a majority stake in Calastone from existing shareholders including Octopus Ventures and Accel, with Calastone management retaining a minority stake. The deal (subject to regulatory approval) will support Calastone’s product innovation and international growth, building on its position as a funds network that serves thousands of clients and processes large monthly investment flows.

Nets Group has acquired Polish merchant acquirer Polskie ePłatności (PeP) to strengthen its presence in Poland and expand its POS and merchant services offering. The deal values PeP at an enterprise value of approximately EUR 405 million; PeP operates a large POS terminal base and employs more than 600 people.

Securitize signed a definitive agreement to acquire Distributed Technology Markets, LLC (DTM), an SEC- and FINRA-registered broker-dealer and ATS, and to acquire Velocity Platform, LLC, a money services business with money transmitter licenses. The deal (terms undisclosed) is intended to expand Securitize’s regulated capabilities across primary issuance and secondary trading of private placement and digital asset securities and is subject to regulatory approvals.

Alkami Technology, a Plano, Texas–based cloud digital banking platform, acquired ACH Alert, a provider of ACH and electronic payments fraud prevention solutions, to add fraud-prevention and secure money-movement capabilities to its platform. The acquisition integrates ACH Alert's PRO-TECH and PRO-CHEX solutions to strengthen Alkami's treasury and payments security offerings for banks and credit unions.

Castles Technology has acquired the business and assets of Spire Payments, a European EFTPOS terminal solutions provider. The deal expands Castles Technology’s terminal portfolio and technical capabilities while strengthening its presence and service offering across EMEA.

Atlanta-based payments provider Paya, backed by private equity firm GTCR, has acquired The Payment Group (TPG) from Thompson Street Capital Partners for $21 million. The acquisition strengthens Paya’s government and utilities payments footprint—notably expanding its presence in Texas—and brings TPG’s ~600 municipal customers onto Paya’s platform.

MRI Software has acquired the RentPayment business (RentPayment.com, StorageRentPayment.com and DuesPayment.com) from Priority Technology Holdings. Priority will continue to provide payment infrastructure and processing to the MRI platform; the deal brings a payments platform serving ~2,900 real-estate clients into MRI to scale and expand its global payments capability for residential, affordable and public housing markets.

FLEETCOR Technologies, Inc. announced it will acquire Associated Foreign Exchange (AFEX), a global cross-border payments and FX risk management provider, to strengthen its corporate cross-border payments capabilities and complement its Cambridge Global Payments business. AFEX serves more than 35,000 customers and processes over $22 billion in annual volume; the deal was signed in September 2020 and expected to close in early 2021 subject to regulatory approvals.

Payroc (Payroc WorldAccess, LLC) has acquired Blackline Partners, LLC (d/b/a eConduit), a cloud API provider that enables software companies to accept EMV card-present payments across multiple countries. The acquisition fills a gap in Payroc's card-present and global integrated processing capabilities, giving its ISV and POS partners a single cloud integration point to many payment terminals and expanding Payroc's integrated payments offering.

UNest, a North Hollywood-based fintech app for parents, acquired child-gifting app Littlefund to add gifting features and accelerate growth. The deal doubles UNest's user base to over 60,000 and brings Littlefund founders Mimi Chan and Isaac Dressman onto the UNest team to lead experience and R&D.

Digital Currency Group (DCG) has acquired Luno, the London-headquartered cryptocurrency exchange, making Luno a wholly owned independent subsidiary. DCG said it will provide capital and support to accelerate Luno's global expansion across Africa, Asia, Europe and beyond; financial terms were not disclosed.

WorldRemit has agreed to acquire Sendwave in a cash-and-stock transaction expected to close in Q4 2020, subject to regulatory approvals. Sendwave will continue to operate independently under its existing brand and management, and the deal expands WorldRemit's reach across Africa and into Bangladesh, creating a larger digital remittances platform.

Payroc LLC, backed by private equity firm Parthenon Capital, has acquired Strategic Payment Systems, Inc., a Canton, Massachusetts-based payments company. The deal brings SPS's merchant relationships and payments capabilities onto Payroc’s global acquiring and processing platform to expand integrated payments, payment facilitation and international processing capabilities.

One Inc has acquired Invenger Technologies, including its Invenger-InsurPay claims payment product, to enhance claims payment functionality within One Inc's digital payments platform. The deal expands One Inc's capabilities for insurers and follows One Inc's recapitalization led by Great Hill Partners, combining both companies' customer bases and technology.

Bain Capital Tech Opportunities led a Series E growth investment in hey with participation from PayPal Ventures, Goldman Sachs, YJ Capital, Anatole, and World Innovation Lab to accelerate the company’s payments and e‑commerce platform growth. Concurrently, hey acquired Coubic to expand into consumer-facing reservations and adjacent services as part of its capability and product expansion strategy.

Volante Technologies raised $35 million in growth equity financing led by Wavecrest Growth Partners with strategic participation from BNY Mellon, Citi Ventures, PostePay and Visa. The capital — Volante’s first outside investment after nearly two decades of organic growth — will be used to accelerate the company’s cloud expansion globally and extend its reach into new geographies, market segments and industry verticals.

ZenBusiness has completed the acquisition of Austin-based fintech Joust and will relaunch the business as ZenBusiness Money. The deal brings Joust's business banking, merchant services, and invoice protection tools into the ZenBusiness platform to expand financial services for microbusinesses and freelancers.

Corsair Capital LLC has entered into a definitive agreement to acquire MSTS (Multi Service Technology Solutions), a global B2B payments and credit solutions provider, from World Fuel Services Corporation. Corsair plans to operate MSTS as a standalone business to accelerate its technology platform, expand product offerings and geographic footprint, and capitalize on growth in the B2B payments market.

REPAY Holdings Corporation (NASDAQ: RPAY) acquired cPayPlus, an accounts payable automation provider headquartered in Salt Lake City, UT, for up to $16.0 million (approximately $8.0 million paid at closing with up to $8.0 million earnout). The acquisition strengthens REPAY’s AP automation capabilities to complement its AR and payments offerings and accelerates cross-sell opportunities across REPAY’s B2B and automotive customer base.

WEX Inc. agreed to a $400 million private investment from an affiliate of Warburg Pincus, consisting of $310 million of convertible notes and $90 million of common stock, and also obtained an amendment to its senior secured credit facilities to increase financial flexibility. The transaction strengthens WEX's balance sheet and liquidity as it navigates COVID-19 headwinds and supports its strategic initiatives across fleet, travel and healthcare payments.

Mastercard has agreed to acquire Finicity, a Salt Lake City-based provider of financial data APIs and analytics, for $825 million plus up to $160 million in potential earn-outs. The acquisition strengthens Mastercard's open banking capabilities and expands its data and account verification offerings for banks, fintechs and lenders in North America and beyond.

PDI (PDI Technologies) has acquired ZipLine (National Payment Card Association), a provider of ACH and mobile payment technology, to add private-label debit and mobile payments to its Marketing Cloud platform. The deal brings integrated digital payments to PDI's loyalty and customer engagement tools, strengthening its offering for convenience retailers, grocers, and petroleum wholesalers.

Goldfinch Partners has provided $125 million of growth capital to Vesta, a provider of fraud protection and fully guaranteed e-commerce payment solutions. The funding will support Vesta's product development, market expansion (including its new Singapore hub) and continued global deployment of its fraud-protection and payment technologies.

Augeo has acquired San Diego-based card-linking platform Empyr and, with investment support from Valor Siren Ventures, will combine Augeo's financial-institution card-linking business with Empyr's publisher expertise to launch a new company called Figg. The combined company will serve more than 60 million users and manage roughly $300 billion in transaction volume, expanding Augeo's capabilities in card-linking and retail technology.

Blackhawk Network has completed its acquisition of SVM Cards, a provider of physical and digital open- and closed-loop prepaid and gift card solutions. The deal expands Blackhawk's prepaid and B2B incentives capabilities by adding closed-loop fuel card issuance and broadening its incentives and corporate gift card offerings.

SoFi (Social Finance, Inc.) agreed to acquire Galileo Financial Technologies for $1.2 billion in cash and stock. The purchase adds Galileo's payments and banking API platform to SoFi's technology stack to expand its product capabilities and distribution to Galileo partners; Galileo will operate as an independent SoFi subsidiary.

Fiserv has acquired Bypass Mobile, an Austin-based independent software vendor that provides enterprise point-of-sale (POS) systems and back-office management tools for restaurants, stadiums and other multi-site operators. The acquisition will integrate Bypass’s POS and insights capabilities into Fiserv’s universal commerce platform to enhance omni-commerce and payment experiences; terms were not disclosed.

Fiserv has acquired MerchantPro Express, an Independent Sales Organization (ISO) headquartered in Melville, New York, to deepen and expand its merchant services business and partner-based distribution. The transaction brings MerchantPro Express’ onboarding, service capabilities and POS offerings together with Fiserv’s payments products (including CoPilot, CardPointe and Clover); financial terms were not disclosed.

Payroc, a Tinley Park-based merchant acquirer and payment processor, has acquired the assets and operations of Gateway Payments, LLC, an independent sales organization based in Destin, Florida. The deal (closed Feb. 28) brings Gateway Payments' sales personnel and merchant portfolio in Gulf Coast markets into Payroc's merchant acquiring platform to accelerate regional growth.

Great Hill Partners led a recapitalization of One Inc, a Folsom, California-based digital payments platform focused on the insurance industry, in partnership with One Inc's management team. The capital will support expansion of engineering, sales, and marketing as One Inc refocuses on insurance-specific payments products; Matt Vettel and Nick Cayer of Great Hill joined One Inc's board. Financial terms were not disclosed.

London-based payments provider Checkout.com has acquired French payments orchestration startup ProcessOut, its first acquisition. The deal brings ProcessOut’s routing and benchmarking technology and ~14-person team into Checkout.com to expand payment optimization capabilities for enterprise merchants.

Foreign Currency Direct, a Pollen Street Capital-backed international payments and FX specialist, has acquired a corporate dealing team and associated client portfolio from Foenix Partners Ltd. The team will join Foreign Currency Direct's corporate division, Infinity International, expanding the group's corporate FX and payments capabilities and client base in the UK.

Small World Financial Services, the Equistone-backed UK money transfer operator, has acquired MoneyGlobe, a French international payments company. The bolt-on deal expands Small World's footprint in France and strengthens its cross-border remittance capabilities across markets including North Africa, West Africa, the Caribbean and South America; financial terms were not disclosed.

Great Hill Partners, a Boston-based private equity firm, completed the acquisition of VersaPay Corporation by way of a statutory plan of arrangement, valuing VersaPay at approximately C$126 million (C$2.70 per share). The deal takes VersaPay private and positions the SaaS accounts-receivable and B2B payments platform to invest in product development and accelerate global expansion under Great Hill's ownership.

Flywire, a Boston-based vertical payments company, has acquired Simplee, a healthcare technology platform that provides patient financial engagement and payment solutions. The deal strengthens Flywire’s healthcare payments capabilities and follows a $120 million Series E round led by Goldman Sachs to support Flywire’s multi-vertical growth strategy.