| Global private equity firm Advent International has completed the acquisition of a majority stake in Clearent, a leading full-service payments solution provider, and the acquisition of FieldEdge, a leading field service management software provider.
Under the terms of the transaction, Advent has merged FieldEdge with Clearent and will own a majority stake in the combined entity. Clearent’s first institutional investor, FTV Capital, invested alongside Advent; other existing investors and senior management of both companies have also rolled a meaningful minority stake. Financial terms of the transaction were not disclosed.
FieldEdge will retain its existing brand and operate as an independent subsidiary of Clearent. It joins Clearent’s platform of independent software vendors servicing select vertical markets with integrated payments solutions. Clearent’s merger with FieldEdge follows its acquisition in January of SPOT Business Systems, an ISV serving customers in the dry cleaning industry.
Founded in 2005, Clearent provides processing and gateway services via its in-house payments platform to merchants and partners through a multichannel sales strategy that includes direct, independent sales organizations, ISVs and tele-sales.
Its processing capabilities support debit and credit cards, next day funding, terminals, virtual terminals, mobile solutions and point-of-sale systems. Clearent has a history of delivering strong organic growth, having made the Inc. 5000 list of fastest-growing companies six straight years.
“Today’s announcement represents an exciting step forward for our customers, partners and employees,” Dan Geraty, CEO and founder of Clearent, said in a statement. “Advent is a leader in terms of facilitating growth and enabling execution in payments and software companies. I am confident they are the right partner for us as we look to continue to capitalize on the move toward integrated payments.”
FieldEdge was founded in 1979 and was originally designed to help its founders run their own HVAC contracting business. Today, the company provides a leading software-as-a-service solution called FieldEdge to provide field service management software to home service contractors.
“We are excited to be part of a larger, combined organization backed by Advent because it will enable us to provide even better solutions and an even higher level of service to our customers,” added Rameez Ansari and Steve Lau, Co-CEOs of FieldEdge. “Clearent’s payments expertise will provide our customers with seamless payments capabilities that will add significant value to their businesses.”
“The combination of Clearent and FieldEdge builds upon our leading global franchise in payments and underscores our belief in the opportunities inherent in integrated payments,” Chris Egan, managing director at Advent International, said in a statement. “We look forward to partnering with management to realize the many opportunities ahead for the combined business.”
Advent has significant investment experience in the payments and software industries. In the past 10 years, Advent has invested $2.5 billion in six platform companies in payments and $3.1 billion in six companies in software worldwide. In addition to Clearent and FieldEdge, investments in the payments sector include Concardis, Nexi, Nets, Worldpay, Vantiv and Monext while investments in the software sector include CCC Information Services, FinancialForce.com, P2 Energy Solutions, Skillsoft, Unit4 and KMD.
