Click here to read TransactionWatch | Subscribe to TransactionWatch
As we near the end of 2021, payment entities are continuing to seek additional avenues of growth through M&A transactions. This week continued the trend of pushing to finalize deals by year-end with a number of industry announcements. To kick things off, Celero Commerce announced their acquisition of Everest Payment Solutions, an ISO based in Florida. With this acquisition, Celero will now serve over 45,000 merchants that represent an annual card volume of more than $18 billion. Separately, EVO Payments announced yesterday (Dec. 16th) their strategic alliance with the National Bank of Greece (“NBG”) to form a merchant acquiring joint venture, in which EVO Payments will acquire a 51% stake in the unit and pay approximately $180 million for its ownership interest. This deal will largely accelerate EVO Payment’s growth across Greece and neighboring countries as NBG currently reigns as the second largest merchant acquirer in Greece with 165,000 merchants generating more than $11 billion in annual payment volume.
In other M&A news, Flywire announced their deal to acquire WPM, a leading ISV serving the education sector across the U.K. With this deal, Flywire is seeking to integrate WPM’s capabilities into their platform, which will allow them to be better positioned in the growing education market vertical. Lastly, the online eCommerce platform, Mercado Libre, announced their deal to acquire Redelcom, an ISO and POS provider based in Chile. Redelcom will complement Mercado Libre’s subsidiary unit, Mercado Pago, and bring additional products and services to their ecosystem.