ATLANTA AND BOSTON – February 10, 2012 – Veracity Payment Solutions, Inc., a privately-held merchant acquirer based in Atlanta, GA, today announced that it has secured an $80M commitment from Boston-based Great Hill Partners, a private equity firm that manages over $2.5 billion in capital. While a portion of the committed funds was used to buyout an existing investor, the vast majority will be used to fund Veracity’s US and European acquisition strategy. Great Hill was the sole investor in the all equity transaction, with Veracity’s founders, current management team and GTX Partners retaining a significant ownership position.
Founded in late 2007 by Joe Cohane, Stephanie Sharp and Grant Putre, Veracity provides credit card, debit card and ACH processing solutions primarily to small- and medium-sized businesses. Veracity operates a channel-driven strategy targeting community banks, trade associations and affinity partners. Veracity’s goal is to provide diverse payment and billing solutions to SMBs through a combination of organic activities and acquisitions. Since inception, Veracity has completed five acquisitions and currently processes for more than 12,000 merchants across numerous industries, leveraging its relationships with 180 partners.
“We are excited about our new partnership with the Great Hill team and believe their market expertise will greatly assist Veracity in the execution of our growth and product development strategy,” said Joe Cohane, Chief Executive Officer. “We have an extensive acquisition pipeline that required the commitment from a financial sponsor with a robust payments background; Great Hill was a perfect fit.” Simultaneous with the closing of the investment, Veracity acquired Midwest Transaction Group, a Michigan based acquirer with a focus on association channels.
“Merchant acquiring continues to become more complex with regulatory changes, new payment types and security concerns. We believe these complexities will create opportunities for technology-focused acquirers like Veracity,” said Matthew Vettel, a Managing Partner of Great Hill Partners, “We are pleased to partner with this management team. Joe, Stephanie, and Grant are widely regarded as thought leaders in the acquiring space. They have done an outstanding job building their business and we look forward to helping them to execute their business plan.”
After the close of the transaction Matt Vettel, Chris Busby and Nick Cayer from Great Hill will join the Veracity Board of Directors.
SunTrust Robinson Humphrey served as financial advisor to Veracity in this transaction.
About Veracity Payment Solutions
Veracity is a merchant acquirer and provider of payment transaction processing services, related software applications and other value-added products to primarily small and medium sized merchants. The Company’s vision is to devise and deliver emerging payment solutions that have traditionally been available to only larger financial institutions and businesses. As of January 2012, Veracity processes $2 billion of payment volume annually for over 12,000 merchants. For more information, please visit www.veracitypayments.com.
About Great Hill Partners
Great Hill Partners is a private equity firm that manages more than $2.5 billion in capital to finance the expansion, recapitalization or acquisition of growth companies in a wide range of sectors within the business and consumer services, media, communications and software industries. Great Hill targets investments of $25 million to $150 million. For more information, please visit www.greathillpartners.com.
