In their increased bid to boost their embedded finance capabilities, Fintech platform FIS has acquired Payrix, the embedded payment company. Payrix was founded in 2015 and has provided embedded payment solutions to serve SMB eCommerce merchants.
According to their press release, this would boost their eCommerce offerings to companies regardless of size or industry, through the addition of embedded payments using a Software-as-a-Service platform (SaaS).
This continues FIS’ expansion of payment capabilities that started with the acquisition of Worldplay in 2019. The acquisition will allow FIS to expand its reach to a global scale, as well as include new capabilities such as automated digital onboarding, billing, compliance, and settlement. This would let the company expand into the SMB eCommerce market, as well as others.
This acquisition gives FIS more share in the embedded finance industry, where they were already a powerhouse in terms of banking solutions for depositing, lending, or issuing payment assets.
FIS didn’t disclose the terms of the acquisition, nor were they included in their February financial results.
FIS’ bets for more embedded finance services are grounded in reality. 60% of decision-makers at financial institutions in the UK have integrated at least one piece of digital technology in the last year. Embedded finance services are quickly gaining popularity worldwide. Around 57% of legacy financial institutions expected to take advantage of FinTech partnerships, with close to 48% of them seeing this as essential to innovate. Furthermore, 52% of these institutions are considering the potential of developing disruptive technologies, while 25% believe that they can make their services more appealing through their use.
Everything points to FIS making the right decisions in terms of acquisitions, with the payment and finance sector quickly evolving and companies rapidly absorbing one another. FIS’ rival, Fiserv, acquired the remaining stake of Finxact for $650 million, while another company, Fintech Amount, bought Linear for $175 million. This was around the same time that NMI, the global payment platform, acquired IRIS.
For their part, FIS reported net earnings of $4.1 billion for 2021. This was an increase of 19% over 2020, with their fourth-quarter alone reporting $1.2 billion in net earnings, up 16% from the previous year. Their revenue, meanwhile, was up 11% both for their fourth quarter and the whole year of 2021. Revenue for the fourth quarter was $3.7 billion, while the year as a whole saw $13.9 billion in revenue.
