A fast-growing fintech startup based in downtown Pittsburgh is accelerating its pace with its second acquisition in less than a year.
Pineapple Payments, a provider of payment processing technology, has acquired Transax, based in the Chicago suburb of Rolling Meadows. Financials weren’t disclosed.
“This really takes Pineapple Payments’ technology to a very different level,” President Jon Halpern said. “These guys at Transax have created a fully integrated payment gateway as well as a payments platform, and they’ve developed a number of value-added features. It allows a business to collect payments in any way they need and makes it very simple for them to do so.”
This includes processing payments directly in QuickBooks, online bill presentation and payment system and hosted checkout, which Pineapple Payments will make available to its customers, called channel partners, who can in turn resell and rebrand, or white label, the services.
Transax has more than 4,000 customers. Its eight employees are joining Pineapple Payments and will remain in Chicago.
That brings Pineapple Payments’ clients to close to 14,000 merchants. It processes more than $3 billion annually, Halpern said. Pineapple Payments now employs 38, 25 of whom are based in Pittsburgh.The company is less than two years old.
Brian Shanahan, repeat entrepreneur, serves as CEO. Pineapple Payments is his fifth fintech startup. His fourth, CardConnect Corp., was acquired by First Data Corp. for $750 million in July 2017; Shanahan had resigned as chairman in fall 2016 to start Pineapple Payments.
Last fall, Pineapple Payments secured a $35 million growth equity commitment from private equity firm Providence Strategic Growth Capital Partners LLC to support acquisitions and organic growth. Shortly afterward, Pineapple Payments bought Chicago-based Payline Data Systems.
Halpern, who led the Transax deal, said it expects to complete at least one and possibly two more acquisitions by the end of 2018.
“Brian and I work hand-in-hand,” Halpern said. “I oversee all of the strategic initiatives and day-to-day operations; Brian’s focused on strategy and vision. My experience comes from the software-as-a-service technology lens, and Brian has 27 years in the payment space.”
