Paystone Adds $30 Million in Funding with Strategic Backing from Crédit Mutuel Equity

LONDON, Ontario & MONTREAL–(BUSINESS WIRE)–Paystone, a leading payments and integrated software company, secures a $30 million investment from Crédit Mutuel Equity, the private equity arm of Crédit Mutuel Alliance Fédérale, one of France’s leading financial institutions. The funds will support Paystone’s ambitious growth strategy and further propel its best-in-class electronic payments and customer engagement technology platform.

Paystone gives businesses the ability to win more customers and drive growth through a fully integrated technology platform, which continues to generate a significant amount of interest in the market with an emphasis on service-oriented verticals.

“Winning more customers is a universal need among businesses of all sizes, and our integrated platform that seamlessly combines electronic payments acceptance with customer growth tools is the first of its kind in the market” says Tarique Al-Ansari, CEO of Paystone.

“Paystone’s track record is very impressive, like its young and talented management team. The company has a comprehensive product roadmap and a very compelling growth strategy, and we intend to further support Paystone in becoming a differentiated leader in this extremely dynamic market,” said David Dickel, Managing Director of Crédit Mutuel Equity in Canada. This transaction brings Crédit Mutuel Equity, an evergreen fund, as a minority shareholder in Paystone.

The company’s consistent revenue growth also earned Paystone a #84 ranking on The Globe and Mail’s 2020 list of ‘Canada’s Top Growing Companies’ and the #61 spot on The 2020 GROWTH500 list by Canadian Business. In addition to its impressive organic growth, Paystone completed five successful acquisitions in the past 18 months including the Forrester recognized DataCandy.

“An investor with the caliber of Crédit Mutuel Equity sets the stage for our company’s global expansion and opens doors beyond North America,” says Al-Ansari. “The support from such a highly respected European investor paired with our existing backers positions Paystone to continue to capitalize on both our organic and acquisitive growth strategies.”

The recent financial investments combined with Paystone’s pandemic-driven growth continue to accelerate the strategic evolution of the fintech company. Paystone entered the U.S. market for the first time in 2021 and is one of the fastest growing businesses in Canada with more than 30,000 merchant locations throughout North America.

Dynamic Digital Payments Market

Paystone’s electronic payments and digital tools are well situated for businesses recovering from the global pandemic. According to the latest report by Payments Canada, the shift to a cashless society accelerated in 2020 with credit card payments exceeding 70 percent of total transactions in Canada. Nearly 3.2 billion of those transactions were contactless, up 55 percent over the previous two years.

About Paystone

Paystone is a leading payment and software company redefining the way merchants engage their customers and grow their businesses. The company’s seamlessly integrated suite of automated payment processing, customer loyalty, and gift card solutions is used by brands such as Irving Oil, The Source, Booster Juice, Global Pet Foods, Kernels Popcorn, and many of the MTY Food Group’s restaurant brands. Paystone’s solutions are used at 30,000 locations across Canada and the United States which collectively process over 10 billion dollars a year in bank-card volume. With offices in London, Ontario, Montreal, Quebec and Vancouver, British Columbia, the fintech company employs more than 150 employees and works with over 50 sales partners across Canada. Visit www.paystone.com for details.

About Crédit Mutuel Equity

Crédit Mutuel Equity (formerly CIC Capital) is the private equity subsidiary of Crédit Mutuel Alliance Fédérale and carries out venture capital, growth capital and buyout activities.

Crédit Mutuel Equity supports business leaders at all stages of their companies’ development, from seed phase to buyout, by providing them with the means and the time required to implement their transformational projects. Crédit Mutuel Equity brings together a network of over 350 business leaders and entrepreneurs who share similar convictions and can benefit from one another’s experience, no matter the nature of their projects. Using its own funds (€3.5 billion), Crédit Mutuel Equity makes investments tailored to the time horizons and growth strategies of the companies in which it invests, whether in France, Canada, the United States, Germany or Switzerland.

For more information, see www.creditmutuel-equity.eu

About Crédit Mutuel Alliance Fédérale

One of France’s leading bank insurers, operating through nearly 4,300 branches serving 26.7 million customers, Crédit Mutuel Alliance Fédérale offers a diversified range of services to a wide range of customers, from private individuals and local professionals to businesses of all sizes.

One of Europe’s strongest banking groups, its shareholders’ equity amounted to €49.6 billion and its CET1 ratio was 17.8% at 30 December 2020.

Crédit Mutuel Alliance Fédérale is made up of the following Crédit Mutuel federations: Centre Est Europe (Strasbourg), Sud-Est (Lyon), Ile-de-France (Paris), Savoie-Mont Blanc (Annecy), Midi-Atlantique (Toulouse), Loire-Atlantique et Centre-Ouest (Nantes), Centre (Orléans), Normandie (Caen), Dauphiné-Vivarais (Valence), Méditerranéen (Marseille), Anjou (Angers), Massif Central (Clermont-Ferrand) and Antilles-Guyane (Fort-de-France).

Crédit Mutuel Alliance Fédérale also encompasses Caisse Fédérale de Crédit Mutuel, Banque Fédérative du Crédit Mutuel (BFCM) and all its subsidiaries, including CIC, Euro-Information, Assurances du Crédit Mutuel (ACM), Targobank, Cofidis Group, Banque Européenne du Crédit Mutuel (BECM), Banque de Luxembourg, Banque Transatlantique and Homiris.

For more information, see www.creditmutuelalliancefederale.fr