Synovus to Buy 60% of Payments Platform Qualpay

Synovus Bank announced Thursday (April 21) it has agreed to buy a 60% stake in Qualpay, a company whose cloud platform lets merchants and independent software vendors add payment features to software or websites.

Synovus is based in Columbus, Georgia, and Qualpay is based in San Mateo, California.

Synovus said in the announcement that it intends to grow Qualpay’s core offering and also integrate the technology into the Maast money-as-a-service offering scheduled for release later this year.

See also: Synovus Bank: Navigating the New Landscape of Compliance and Risk

“Maast will combine embedded payments and embedded banking on one platform, accessed via a common integration layer and a single onboarding experience,” the announcement said.

Maast will make it easy for independent software vendors (ISVs) to add features including payment and loan processing into applications. Those services will use the software companies’ brand and be backed by Synovus, the announcement said.

Kevin Blair, Synovus president and chief executive, said in a prepared statement, “Maast will help ISVs simplify the integration and delivery of value-added solutions while deepening customer relationships.”

Craig Gass, chief executive of Qualpay, said the two companies “have enjoyed a long, fruitful relationship.”

The advisers on the transaction were Centerview Partners LLC and Alston & Bird for Synovus and Nomura Securities International and Wilson Sonsini Goodrich & Rosati for Qualpay.