Purepay LLC, a $100 million Columbus, Ohio, buyout fund focused on payment vendors, said Thursday that it has acquired a controlling stake in Netvantage Inc., a Gaithersburg, Md., processor the mainly serves state and local governments and has 140 lockbox clients.
The acquisition is Purepay's second since its launch in January. In August it acquired Creditron Inc., a Toronto developer of automated lockbox and remittance software that has about 200 customers, primarily middle-market companies in the United States and Canada.
"With 5 million capture points to be won, we continue to believe that the small-to-medium enterprise remittance category is a promising investment environment," Steve Valachovic, a Purepay managing director, said in a press release. The fund's acquisitions "signal the beginning of an industry consolidation of the SME remittance category."
Mr. Valachovic cited last month's purchase of AudioTel Corp., an Addison, Tex., lockbox software company, by Jack Henry & Associates Inc. The Monett, Mo., core processor has said it plans to combine its enterprise payment products with AudioTel's lockbox and remittance products.
