ConnexPay, the first and only payments technology company that integrates payments acceptance and issuance inside a single platform, today announced a $110 million growth equity investment led by FTV Capital, a sector-focused growth equity investor with more than two decades of experience in payments and financial services. Previous ConnexPay investors also participated in the round. The funding will enable ConnexPay to drive international expansion in Europe and beyond, as well as continue to enhance its innovative payments platform. With this investment, ConnexPay has raised a total of $145 million to date.
Founded in 2017, ConnexPay was initially developed to serve the travel industry, today supporting many of the largest travel agencies, tour operators, and air and hotel consolidators. The company continues to focus on travel while also serving related verticals that function as payment intermediaries, such as online marketplaces, delivery services, ticket brokers, emerging fintechs, and insurance and warranty providers. Over the past 12 months, ConnexPay has more than doubled its number of active clients and its employee count. The company is profitable while offering market-leading rebates to its clients and processing billions of dollars in payments.
While some providers offer both card issuing and payment acquiring services, those offerings are in separate systems with disjointed reporting and reconciliation. ConnexPay’s one-of-a-kind technology seamlessly connects both sides of the payment ecosystem — accepting and making payments — inside a single platform with instant access to incoming funds and just one reconciliation. By serving as both acquirer and issuer, ConnexPay can easily connect payments coming in to payments going out and bring real value to both the consumer and merchant. Whereas other companies offering issuing and acquiring require negotiating multiple contracts, working with various account teams and several technology integrations, ConnexPay requires just one integration point, one contract and one team. In addition to these platform and process efficiencies, ConnexPay also provides a lower cost of accepting payments and high card rebates, further boosting its clients’ bottom lines.
“ConnexPay was founded to transform the entire payments experience for the travel industry, and now that mission extends to other payment intermediary companies both in the U.S. and around the world,” said Robert Kaufman, founder and CEO at ConnexPay. “The value of the connected ecosystem – which provides reduced risk, improved cash flow, lower costs of accepting payments and easier reconciliation – truly transforms companies across many verticals. With FTV’s proven track record in payments and its extensive Global Partner Network, we are confident this partnership positions ConnexPay to accelerate global commercial success.”
To lead ConnexPay’s global expansion, in early 2022 the company hired Anant Patel as president of international markets. A 22-year payments industry veteran, Patel brings a wealth of experience to ConnexPay and will drive the company’s entry into Europe, APAC and beyond. As ConnexPay prepares for its global launch by year-end, this investment will support continued technology enhancements and the addition of key hires to build out its international team.
ConnexPay has also proven successful in serving as a Bank Identification Number (BIN) sponsor and card processor to power fintechs and other corporations with its innovative platform. The company’s patent-pending Intelligent Purchases Routing technology chooses and automatically issues from more than 40+ BINs the type of virtual card to optimize the payment based on desired results.
“ConnexPay has proven itself as a leading payments solution that delivers tangible ROI to customers by converting payment processing from an expense to a new revenue stream,” said Adam Hallquist, principal at FTV Capital. “ConnexPay’s differentiated technology, coupled with its rapid and profitable growth and seasoned leadership team, convinced us that ConnexPay is well positioned to further scale in its core markets while also winning in new markets as commerce intermediaries seek simpler, more convenient and more cost-effective payment solutions.”
As part of this growth investment, Hallquist joined ConnexPay’s board of directors, and Chris Winship, partner at FTV Capital, joined as a board observer.
D.A. Davidson served as exclusive strategic and financial advisor to ConnexPay.
