From bank ownership to vertical innovation: The future of payments
The payments sector has seen a huge wave of innovation over the last two decades - and there's even more change to come.
Historically, the largest players were the banks and credit card companies. But one of the key trends driving growth in the sector has been the move from physical cash payments to digital ones. As investors, we have played an important role in this early stage of the market’s development.
Horizontal payments
Between 2008-10, we invested in Monext, Vantiv and WorldPay. Each were carveout investments, in which we took a payments processing division of a larger entity and shaped it into a separate, free-standing business.
These carveouts were complex. Separating the IT platform at Vantiv from that of its parent was like “un-mixing paint”, according to one executive at the bank. However, the daunting efforts were rewarded. Driven by significant investment, each business grew and thrived in its new form.?
This prompted us to make four more complex carveout deals in the subsequent decade, of Nexi in Italy, Concardis in Germany, Nets in Denmark, and Prisma Medios de Pagos in Argentina (see a list of our payments investments since 2008 below). These investments were aimed at consolidating regional players to make cross-border leaders, and can be described as “horizontal”.
Integrated payments
As the payments sector developed, new players emerged to service the needs of an increasingly digital market. Banks were no longer the only game in town. A variety of fintech businesses came to market pursuing a “vertical” model.
As well as processing payments, they assisted merchants with management software to help them run their businesses, typically processing payments across multiple channels.
Connected commerce
The market continues to develop, and in this third phase, payments innovators offer suites of services in addition to payments.
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These span from digital wallets to loyalty schemes and from data analytics to financial services such as insurance. These providers typically operate a software-as-a-service model.
“If horizontal payments represented the first phase of market development and integrated payments the second, the third, and current, is all about connected commerce.” - Fabio Cali, Managing Director in Advent’s London team
Our exciting new report into the future of payments sets out the opportunities and challenges ahead for the sector. Download it for free today.
Advent has invested over $7.8bn in payments and fintech companies since 2008. In this time, we have been privileged to support many innovative businesses that have helped to define the payments sector. From carveout deals to create payments champions, to evolving business models offering vertical software and seamless payments, our investments have helped to shape this dynamic space into its current form.
?With these exciting trends showing no sign of slowing, we’re excited about the opportunities ahead.
Advent’s investments in payments since 2008