A payments innovator with a substantive presence in metro Atlanta has raised $110 million to drive its expansion into Europe.
ConnexPay, which has an office employing about 15 of its 70 total staff in Alpharetta, plans to use the capital largely to expand across the pond, likely through a London office, though the location has not yet been finalized.
The company’s payment platform allows companies that act as marketplaces or intermediaries to “align incoming customer payments with outgoing supplier payments” in a single platform that combines the contract, payment processing and reconciliation of funds in one place.
The fundraising round was led by FTV Capital and included prior investors, bringing total capital raised to date to $145 million. Terms of the deal and valuation are not being disclosed.
Founded five years ago, ConnexPay was designed with travel-industry consolidators in mind. These marketplaces sit in the middle between available airline seats or hotel rooms and the consumers looking to reserve them.
With ConnexPay, the marketplace operator can instantaneously match payments received from the traveler to those due to the suppliers using the same order number. Instead of waiting two or three days for the funds to settle, as with traditional credit card payments, ConnexPay can make them available immediately, then batch settle on the back end.
The outgoing payment is sent with a virtual credit card issued automatically in the ConnexPay platform and optimized to maximize rebates for the marketplace.
All this is done through APIs, helping customers cut transaction costs, reduce risk and streamline cash flow. ConnexPay plans to bring the system to bear for other marketplaces, such as ticket brokers, other fintechs, insurance companies and warranty service providers.
In a news release, the company said it is profitable, having processed more than $10 billion in total transaction volume. It has already doubled its headcount and achieved 500 percent net revenue growth so far in 2022.
According to a spokesperson, founder and CEO Robert Kaufman said Thursday that the company could double its workforce once again by the end of 2023, with some 20 of those new team members likely to be in Europe. Alpharetta could significantly benefit from the growth as well, as it’s home to CTO Kunal Patel and Head of Product Judson Preuss among other employees, many of whom work remotely.
ConnexPay is technically based in Bonita Springs, Fla., with Mr. Kaufman splitting time between there and an office in the twin cities area of Minnesota.
Earlier this year, the company hired 22-year payments-industry veteran Anant Patel as president of international markets, with the goal of expanding into Europe, Asia and other locales. Mr. Patel is based in Leicester, England, according to his LinkedIn profile.
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