Payments & Fintech Acquisitions in Georgia

Riata Capital Group, a Dallas-based private equity firm, has made a strategic growth investment in Government Window, a Kennesaw, Georgia-headquartered cloud-based payments platform serving state and local governments. The investment will support Government Window's geographic expansion across the U.S. and continued product buildout of its payments software and related services.

Marlin Equity Partners’ portfolio company Marcura has acquired Brightwell Navigator, the maritime crew payroll and payments division of Atlanta-based Brightwell Payments Inc. Brightwell Navigator will be merged into Marcura to strengthen its embedded payments and crew payroll capabilities, creating a leading crew payments solution serving over 150,000 seafarers per month.

Fortis has acquired MerchantE's NetSuite payments division, adding legacy NetSuite-integrated payment capabilities to its embedded payments platform. The deal strengthens Fortis' leadership in embedded ERP payments and continues MerchantE's two-decade legacy supporting the NetSuite ecosystem.

A consortium of institutional investors led by Sixth Street — including KKR, Bayview Asset Management and CardWorks, with support from PIMCO and strategic financing from CPP Investments — acquired GreenSky and associated loan assets from Goldman Sachs. The transaction, which deepens GreenSky's partnership with Synovus Bank, closed in March 2024 and transfers control of the point-of-sale home improvement lending platform to the investor group.

Aurora Payments has acquired VN Systems (Iso1st LLC, DBA VN Systems), a Georgia-based merchant services provider and ISO that serves Vietnamese-owned nail salons and other SMBs. The deal adds immediate scale to Aurora and its NailSoft salon-management platform, expanding distribution and integrated payments/software capabilities; 733Park advised VN Systems on the transaction.

Nuvei Corporation agreed to acquire Paya Holdings Inc. in an all-cash transaction valued at approximately $1.3 billion (USD $9.75 per share). The deal combines Nuvei's global payment platform with Paya's U.S. integrated-payments and ISV capabilities to accelerate growth in eCommerce, integrated payments and B2B end markets.

Opn has acquired MerchantE, a leading end-to-end payments and commerce platform headquartered in Alpharetta, Georgia, from Integrum. The combined business processes over $19 billion in payments for more than 20,000 customers and will expand Opn's footprint into the U.S. while MerchantE retains its headquarters and brand.

FTV Capital led a $110 million growth equity investment in ConnexPay to support the payments technology company's international expansion and product enhancements. The funding will help ConnexPay extend its unified acquiring-and-issuing payments platform into new geographies and verticals, with FTV taking a board seat and previous investors also participating.

The Goldman Sachs Group, Inc. completed an all-stock acquisition of GreenSky, Inc., a cloud-native fintech platform for point-of-sale home improvement lending. The deal, valued at approximately $2.24 billion, integrates GreenSky’s merchant and consumer financing capabilities into Goldman’s Marcus consumer banking platform to expand its embedded lending and payments capabilities.

Integrum, a New York-based investment firm, has agreed to acquire MerchantE, an Alpharetta, Georgia-based full‑stack payments platform previously owned by Cielo. Integrum intends to invest in MerchantE's product, customer success and go-to-market capabilities to grow the company as a payments platform serving mid‑market B2B merchants.

FIS has acquired Payrix, an embedded payments fintech that enables SaaS platforms to embed payments and financial services for SMB merchants. Payrix was sold by an investor group led by PSG (Providence Strategic Growth) and Blue Star Innovation Partners; terms were not disclosed. The deal expands FIS's embedded payments, onboarding and automated underwriting capabilities to accelerate its e-commerce and platform offerings for SMBs.

Bakkt Holdings, LLC completed its business combination with special purpose acquisition company VPC Impact Acquisition Holdings, and the combined company began trading on the New York Stock Exchange on October 18, 2021 under the ticker BKKT. The transaction generated approximately $448 million in gross proceeds to Bakkt; Intercontinental Exchange (ICE) maintains an approximately 68% economic interest and a minority voting interest in the combined company.

Pineapple Payments, a Pittsburgh-based payments technology company, acquired Roswell, Georgia-based 1st Payment Systems to expand its direct sales reach and deepen partnerships with associations and Integrated Software Vendors (ISVs). The deal brings 1st Payment's vertical-focused sales capabilities into Pineapple's Transax platform to pursue more ISV and association channel growth; terms were not disclosed.

Warburg Pincus made a $125 million preferred equity growth investment in LendingPoint to support the company's expansion of financing solutions for ecommerce, point-of-sale, and financial institution partners and to enhance its data and technology platform. LendingPoint, a metro-Atlanta fintech that has originated over $2.5 billion in loans since 2015, will use the proceeds to scale products, data science, and merchant integrations.

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.

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.

Deluxe Corporation's WAUSAU Financial Systems acquired the remittance processing business of First Data Corporation for $93 million in cash. The acquisition integrates remittance processing, image-capture software and related treasury management capabilities into Deluxe Financial Services' Treasury Management Solutions to enhance efficiency and funds availability for financial institutions and corporate clients.