TabaPay Aims to Become TabaBank After Raising $155 Million

Payment infrastructure platform TabaPay says it plans to acquire Colorado’s Transact Bank.

The company announced that deal Wednesday (Sept. 2) along with the news that it had secured a $155 million strategic growth financing led by growth equity firm FTV Capital.

The deal is expected to close during the fourth quarter of the year, pending regulatory approval. Following the acquisition. Transact Bank, which is chartered by the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency (OCC) and FDIC-insured, will be renamed TabaBank.

“For nearly a decade, TabaPay has helped innovative fintech companies move money faster, more efficiently and more reliably,” Rodney Robinson, co-founder and CEO of TabaPay, said in a news release.

“The planned launch of TabaBank will bring payments and banking capabilities under one roof, offering our clients a more integrated experience while continuing to work alongside our network of bank partners. Together, TabaBank and FTV’s investment will expand our capabilities and help keep TabaPay at the forefront of payment innovation.”

TabaPay provides payment processing infrastructure via a single API, allowing for payments and payouts across card and bank networks. The company maintains a network of more than 20 partner banks in the U.S. and Canada and is on track to process more than $100 billion in payment volume this year.

The $155 million investment is also expected to qualify TabaBank to serve as an acquirer for all industries, across all major card networks, the company said.

“This will bolster TabaPay’s sponsorship capabilities for merchants, ISOs, payment facilitators, and other platform customers. It will also serve to accelerate TabaPay’s product roadmap, including developing innovative merchant liquidity solutions and pursuing strategic acquisitions,” per the release.

“TabaBank will be one of only a few payments-focused banks in Silicon Valley, well-positioned to serve local fintech and technology companies with complex money movement needs.”

PYMNTS wrote last week about the increasing efforts by FinTech companies to land banking charters after the OCC said it had approved nine significant charters in the previous 90 days.

“For more than a decade, regulators signaled that those seeking a federal bank charter and federal deposit insurance need not apply,” Comptroller of the Currency Jonathan V. Gould said in a statement last month.

“Entities that engage in legally permissible activities, including those involving digital assets and other novel technologies, should have a path to becoming a national bank. America and the OCC are once again open for business.”