Paysafe To Buy iPayment As It Expands In North America

Paysafe, a global payments provider, announced Friday (April 13) that it has inked a deal to acquire iPayment Holdings, the provider of payment and processing solutions for small and medium-sized businesses (SMB). Terms of the deal were not disclosed.

In a press release, Paysafe said the buy is part of the company’s investment strategy to expand its presence in North America. The company said there are “significant” growth opportunities, particularly in the small and medium-sized business sector.  The acquisition, said the company, also builds on its acquisition of Merchant Choice Payment Solutions, the SMB payments provider, in 2017. It also has a sponsorship of the IndyCar series. All of this will establish Paysafe as a top five non-bank payment processor in the U.S., it said in the press release.

“This targeted acquisition is part of our long-term investment strategy to grow our business in North America and builds on our other successful acquisitions over the past couple of years,” said Joel Leonoff, Paysafe’s President and CEO, in the press release. “iPayment is an excellent strategic fit with Paysafe in terms of its comprehensive product offering, customer-centric focus and overall strategic vision. By bringing our two organizations together, we will be able to further strengthen our wide-ranging payments processing suite and expose it to a broader audience of merchants and consumers. We are all looking forward to the multiple opportunities this combination brings to the market.”

According to Paysafe, iPayment has more than 137,000 customers and annual processing volume of more than $28 billion last year. It operates in both the direct and indirect sales channels and is a partner for hundreds of agents, sub-ISOs and software developers that are focused on the SMB market. It has more than 450 employees in the U.S. Paysafe said the integration of iPayment into Paysafe will give merchants, partners, and consumers more product choices by offering point-of-sale solutions, order-ahead purchases and payments and online payment products.  “This agreement marks a very exciting day for our organization,” noted OB Rawls IV, CEO and president of iPayment, in the press release. “Since joining iPayment two years ago, we have delivered strong EBITDA growth and expanded our footprint into new key verticals. This acquisition will drive significant value for our collective customers and partners.”

The merged payment processing group will be headed up by Todd Linden, CEO of Paysafe’s Payment Processing Division in North America. Rawls, along with iPayment CFO Robert Purcell, will both remain with the organization, as will key members of Paysafe’s payments leadership team. The company said the deal is expected to be completed in the second quarter.