Atlanta-based Bluefin Technologies, which helps secure payments and customer data across online and in-person transactions, is acquiring a European payments provider to expand its global reach.
Bluefin is buying TECS Payment Systems, based in Vienna, betting that their complementary capabilities will help each scale more quickly and better serve their existing customer bases.
TECS’s payment platform is connected to big acquirers like Fiserv, Global Payments and EVO Payments — those mammoth processors of card payments for merchants accepting card payments all over the world. All of the above are either based in Georgia or have a substantial presence here. On its own, TECS says it reaches 14,000 merchants in 17 countries.
Bluefin, meanwhile, has focused less on processing payments in its own right and more on safeguarding payments for its more than 300 partners, many of them software platforms, hardware or device manufacturers and other payments providers.
Formed in 2012 by the merger of New York-based Capital Payments and Tulsa, Okla.-based Bluefin, more of a technology provider at its origin, the company gradually specialized in payment security after moving to Atlanta. It created the first peer-to-peer encryption approved by by the PCI Security Standards Council, providing processors with tokenization and encryption along the “chain of custody” in a transaction, which passes through many intermediaries.
During a 2018 interview, company executives told Global Atlanta that the adoption of the EMV chip cards gave consumers and merchants a false sense of security.
“It feels like a more secure transaction, but all it is doing is protecting the merchant from consumers; it’s not protecting the consumer at all,” said Ruston Miles, chief strategy officer.
The massive 2013 Target breach and others like it are made possible when one link in the chain is secure but not the others, Mr. Miles added, noting that fraud detection on the front end of the transaction is not a substitute for a full cybersecurity and data-protection strategy.
John Perry, the CEO, said at the time that Bluefin had already begun to work with merchants in Europe, particularly those already connected with one of Bluefin’s partners. At the time, it had partners in Ireland.
The expansion of its payment processing comes at a time of rapid change in the world of commerce and at a time of growth for the company, which raised $25 million in growth capital in late 2020, as payment habits were starting to change in part due to the pandemic.
Citing industry reports, Bluefin sees global e-commerce nearly doubling to $6.1 trillion next year above 2019 levels. Mobile payments — particularly contactless and through digital wallets — have also taken off after the pandemic. They’re set to grow more than sixfold from 2021 levels to nearly $12 trillion by 2028.
All this opens up opportunity that TECS’s platform will help Bluefin tap, while using its existing capabilities to reduce risk.
TECS processes international payments, fleet cards, account-based payments and digital wallets across “in-person, mobile and e-commerce channels.” Meeting buyers where they are — known in retail as the “omnichannel” experience — is increasingly important in an age where the line between brick-and-mortar and online purchases is blurred.
“There were natural synergies between the TECS and Bluefin solutions and teams,” said Fazlollah Rostamian, founder and CEO of TECS, said in a news release. “We are excited about what the strength of our combined resources will mean for our customers, and the many ways we can help businesses provide the payment experience that their customers demand.”
The combined companies will serve 34,000 merchants and 300 global partners in 55 countries.
TECS will be folded into Bluefin but will retain its Austria operations, which will be run by Mr. Rostamian locally.
Learn more in the news release here. The terms of the deal were not disclosed.