The fleet card provider WEX has agreed to acquire software-as-a-service technologies provider Benaissance.
The transaction is expected to cost South Portland, Maine-based WEX $80 million, according to an Oct. 15 news release. WEX said that it expects the purchase will benefit earnings in 2016, excluding integration costs.
Benaissance specializes in health care premium billing. It offers two products: ExchangePoint, which manages financial demands of private and public health insurance exchanges for employers and individuals, and COBRApoint, which handles benefits administration and payment processing for individual subscribers.
WEX plans to integrate Benaissance into its Evolution 1 platform. Benaissance and Evolution1 already share a number of partners and customers according to the release.
"The acquisition of Benaissance builds on the success we have already had in the health care space by allowing us to provide an expanded and differentiated payments solution," Melissa Smith, WEX's president and chief executive, said in the release. "We believe this will enhance our addressable market opportunity, customer loyalty and wallet share over time, while strengthening our overall value proposition in this attractive, high-growth vertical."
The deal, which has been approved by both companies' boards of directors, is expected to close in the fourth quarter of 2015.
