Heartland Acquires Leaf to Expand Mobile Point of Sale Tech

Heartland Payment Systems has purchased the mobile point of sale vendor Leaf to improve its capabilities for small businesses.

The Princeton, N.J.-based payment processor made an initial $20 million investment in Leaf in September of 2013. Heartland has purchased the remaining minority interest in the company for an undisclosed amount.

Leaf will continue to work with the majority of domestic payments processors and build distribution relationships with independent sales organizations and partners, Heartland said in an Aug. 14 press release.

“Leaf and Heartland value serving customers with fair pricing and transparent business practices, making for a real partnership,” Robert O. Carr, chairman and CEO of Heartland, said in the release. “We’ve made a significant investment in Leaf and we want to continue making sure it has the resources needed to realize its full potential.”

Sarah McCrary will stay on as Leaf's CEO, Heartland said. Leaf co-founder Sebastian Castro will continue in his role as chief technical evangelist. McCrary came to Leaf in March from Heartland, where she was a planning director.

Leaf's LeafPresenter device is a tablet with a built-in card reader. Its second-generation model, released in late 2013, added EMV-chip card acceptance capabilities.