Billtrust’s First Institutional Investor Sells Stake

Edison Partners, the first institutional investor in business payments firm Billtrust, has exited the company. A press release issued Monday (May 14) said Edison sold its stake in Billtrust to private equity firm W Capital Partners. Though financial terms of the deal were not disclosed, Edison said it made a more than a 10-fold return on its Billtrust investment.

Edison Partners Managing Partner Chris Sugden said, “Billtrust Founder and CEO Flint Lane was a visionary in 2001, continues to be the leading innovator in B2B billing payments, and pioneered payment cycle management today. He saw the opportunity in this market before the FinTech ecosystem declared enterprise-focused FinTech a ‘cool’ sector. Flint and the entire Billtrust team epitomize the founders, CEOs and growth-stage businesses we aim to serve.”

According to the press release, Billtrust has increased its revenue 30-fold since receiving the initial investment from Edison. The company has also completed seven acquisitions since the investment, including its most recent takeover of Credit2B, announced last month. That takeover sees Billtrust expanding its Quantum offering to integrate business credit reports, online credit applications, machine learning-powered credit scoring and credit analytics.

“Edison’s capital helped to finance our growth, while the investments from the Edison team,  Director Network and the Edison Edge value-add platform helped us scale our growth,” said Lane in another statement. “Chris’ board leadership, mentorship and friendship has been invaluable to the business, and to me personally.”

Edison Director Network member Robert Farrell, who is also CEO of GlobalTranz, and Edison Partners Partner and board member Kelly Ford will remain on Billtrust’s board of directors, the press release said.

“Kelly Ford’s hands-on participation with our team and board has helped us to evolve our go-to-market strategy to achieve the next level of scalable growth,” Lane continued. “I look forward to many more years working in close partnership with the team at Edison.”