Payments Tech Firm Paya Courts Takeover Offers

Payments tech company Paya Holdings will be looking into selling itself as there has been takeover interest, a report from Bloomberg said.

Paya has been working with an adviser to field the interest, and anonymous sources say there are “large, publicly traded” payments companies looking to be brokers.

However, there have been no agreements yet, and talks might not result in one—Paya may end up staying independent.

Paya’s services help insurers, utilities, nonprofits and other customers collect payments, process checks and other services.

The payments sector has seen numerous consolidations as of late, with big companies like Global Payments and Fiserv buying up smaller rivals to help with their scales and diversity.

The payments sector has also saw boosts of growth during the pandemic as cashless payments became more popular.

Paya merged with a special purpose acquisition company (SPAC) backed by serial dealmaker Betsy Cohen, though its shares have fallen by over 50% since that deal closed — one of many such cases of shares falling after a SPAC merger in the last several months.

Read more: Businesses Cite Outdated AP Systems as Hampering Vendor Communications

PYMNTS wrote that the needs for payments services are wide-ranging, with businesses of various sizes experiencing inefficiencies as they work with high levels of payables or “mass payouts.”

The report says the organizations without the solutions and infrastructure to work with these sorts of operations will have trouble and run into growth-hampering obstacles, according to a report from PYMNTS and Routable.

The report surveyed many companies, with the bulk of them saying their growth would be hurt by not being able to handle the increase in payments volumes they’re seeing.

There are other stresses, too, including not being able to communicate properly with vendors and service providers, and 15% of executives surveyed said this was their biggest issue.

There are other challenges as well, including insufficient payment options and a lack of a way to make payments in currencies used by vendors.