DocuPhase Buys Clearwater For B2B Payment Processing Boost

DocuPhase has completed its acquisition of Dallas-based cloud-based electronic payment solution Clearwater Payments, according to a press release on Monday (April 12).

Clearwater Payments reportedly processes millions of B2C and B2B payments for enterprise clients in banking, insurance and utilities.

Since LoneTree Capital’s acquisition in June 2020, DocuPhase has now invested over three million dollars in technology and talent, intending to strengthen their product offering. The goal is to rapidly automate business practices.

The acquisition of Clearwater is the second performed by DocuPhase this year, as earlier this month it also acquired Treeno Software. With these acquisitions, DocuPhase offers end-to-end payments in the automated accounts payable (AP) and accounts receivable (AR) markets. It is one of the few in the industry to do so.

“It is our mission to create an end-to-end accounting automation solution for our customers from the point of receiving an invoice to intelligent scanning, data entry and storage in their ERP system followed by completing the process with approval workflows resulting in fully automated electronic payments,” said Dan Gaertner, CEO of DocuPhase. “The acquisition of Clearwater Payments gives us that final piece to complete the mission,” one where they can provide a fully automated AP and AR solution for their customers.

David Kesler, Clearwater Payments chair and CEO, said the partnership would allow them to continue providing electronic bill payment services and products.

“This partnership allows us to not only continue that objective but also enhances and improves our client experience with the addition of DocuPhase’s process automation and document management platform,” he said, according to the release. “This creates a payments hub, managing both receivables and payables.”

While many companies still use paper checks, a 2018 survey found that 89 percent of respondents planned to create or adopt digitally-based strategies for their B2B and other such payments.

The digital tools can have benefits including letting companies continue using check payments when they don’t have the budgets to move to digital alternatives.