Choice Brings on Nexa Equity as Majority Investor and Acquires Direct Payment Consultants

Choice's acquisition of Direct Payment Consultants expands its leading omnichannel payments platform to more than $3 billion in annual payments volume across 7,000+ customers

SAN FRANCISCO, April 26, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- Nexa Equity LLC, a private equity firm focused on scaling lower middle market software and fintech businesses, announced today that it has acquired Choice Inc., a leading global payments platform. Additionally, Choice has acquired Direct Payment Consultants, a payments provider that partners directly with merchants. After the acquisition, Choice's platform will process more than $3 billion in annual payments volume across 7,000+ customers in the United States and Canada. The founding teams of both Choice and Direct Payment Consultants each continue to hold a meaningful stake in the combined business. Financial terms of the transactions were not disclosed. 

The Choice global payments platform provides advanced, end-to-end omnichannel commerce solutions to merchants and technology companies of all sizes. The company's modern payment integrations and business management solutions empower independent software vendors (ISVs), payment facilitators (PayFacs), enterprise merchants and independent sales organizations (ISOs) to enable their merchants to accept multiple electronic payment types and tools to scale their businesses.

Direct Payment Consultants is focused on helping merchants complete end-to-end payment transactions for their businesses. Combined with Choice's leading platform, the customers of Choice and Direct Payment Consultants will benefit from an expanded product portfolio and the shared knowledge of operators with a deep understanding of the payments space.

"Choice's mission to modernize the convergence of payments and technology to transform the future of commerce aligns well with Nexa Equity's investment strategy," said Nexa Founder and Managing Partner Vlad Besprozvany. "We look forward to scaling the Choice platform through organic initiatives while continuing to actively pursue strategic acquisitions like Direct Payment Consultants."

Nexa Equity's investment will augment Choice's go-to-market team and enhance its omnichannel fintech platform. The platform includes a payment gateway, application programming interfaces (API), point-of-sale-software, invoicing, recurring billing, embedded financing, real-time underwriting, and comprehensive partner and merchant reporting.

"We wanted to bring on a capital partner that understands our business, goals and end customer, and we found that in Nexa Equity," said Choice CEO John Paul Golino. "Choice is laser focused on providing customers with the most comprehensive and cutting-edge omnichannel payment solutions in the industry to benefit all parties in the equation. Our acquisition of Direct Payment Consultants will enable us to execute on this vision even further and I'm thrilled to have the Direct Payment Consultants team join us and to take Choice to the next level together." 

"We are excited to join forces with Choice and to enhance our service to customers by offering them the proprietary software and tools in Choice's platform," added Direct Payment Consultants CEO Jim Black. "The combination solidifies our ability to deliver a leading integrated payments solution to our customers and partners, and we look forward to what we will achieve as a combined team."

Weil, Gotshal & Manges LLP and Morris, Manning & Martin served as legal counsel to Nexa Equity in connection with the transactions.

MAPP Advisors, a fintech advisory firm with a core focus on payments, and CorvinoLaw advised Choice in connection with the Nexa acquisition.

733Park, an M&A advisory firm specializing in payments, fintech, crypto, and SaaS, advised Nexa Equity and Choice on the Direct Payment Consultants transaction.

About Nexa Equity

Nexa Equity is a San Francisco, California based private equity firm that partners with founder-led, rapidly scaling SaaS and fintech companies that address markets underserved by technology to create enduring value for the benefit of its investors and portfolio companies. The firm has more than $250 million in private equity capital under management and is focused on continuing to grow its portfolio of companies. The Nexa Equity team brings substantial investing and operational experience to the table and helps management teams professionalize and scale their businesses and drive long-term sustainable growth. For more information, please visit www.nexaequity.com.

About Choice Merchant Solutions

Choice is a fast-growing payments and technology fintech that offers merchants a robust, omnichannel commerce experience. The company's proprietary technology platform integrates seamlessly into software vendor technology stacks, enabling embedded payment monetization along with fraud management tools, analytics and comprehensive reporting for ISVs and their merchants. For more information, please visit www.choice.xyz.

About Direct Payment Consultants

Direct Payment Consultants is a Pennsylvania based payments company. Direct Payment Consultants partners with businesses across the country to accept all major payment cards. The company is committed to offering customers best-in-class payment processing services, alongside cost saving measures, to enable customers to drive better business results. For more information, please visit www.dpcsales.com.

Media Contact:
Mark Semer/Nathaniel Garnick
Gasthalter & Co.
[email protected]
(212) 257-4170

SOURCE Choice; Nexa Equity