TimePayment Acquires Equipment Financing Firm Wheaten Financial

TimePayment, a FinTech involved in sales financing for sellers of specialty equipment, has acquired Wheaten Financial Inc., which finances purchases of equipment, especially commercial vehicles, according to a Monday (May 9) press release.

Irvine, California-based Wheaten will operate as a wholly owned subsidiary of TimePayment and will continue to be run by its founder, Aimee McChurch, according to the announcement. TimePayment is based in Boston.

“Wheaten is a company we’ve admired for a while now and we’re excited to be adding this great business to our portfolio of niche-focused, strategic business units,” TimePayment President and Chief Executive Officer Jay Haverty said in the announcement. “Expanding our position in the specialty vehicle and titled equipment segments has been a priority. And Wheaten checks all the boxes.”

TimePayment Chairman Hank Reeves added in a prepared statement, “The Wheaten acquisition is consistent with our strategy to add new asset classes to the mix of specialty markets that TimePayment serves.”

Wheaten was founded in 2007 and “has steadily grown its market share since inception and more than tripled new loan originations over the past few years,” according to the release.

McChurch said in a prepared statement that one of the attractions of Wheaten being acquired by TimePayment is TimePayment’s technology platform. “We need to keep growing to stay relevant to this industry, and we’ll now be able to reach far more customers and do it faster than ever,” she said.

Haverty concurred, saying, “It’s a great combination. Working with Aimee and her team, we’ll be able to serve more small-business owners than ever. We are simply a much more valuable company with Wheaten as part of our enterprise.”

According to TimePayment, it has more than 100,000 active accounts and transaction sizes ranging from $500 to more than $500,000.