LONDON & MILTON KEYNES, England--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Retail Merchant Services (RMS), the U.K.’s award-winning payments services company, today announced that it has been acquired by TCV, a leading provider of capital to growth-stage private and public enterprises in the technology industry.
The acquisition and associated investment will support RMS’s next phase of growth and continued innovation of payment services for its merchant customers. RMS’s shareholders, including its founder Paul Bentham, and the management team reinvested alongside TCV. As part of the transaction, John Rosenberg, General Partner at TCV, will join the company’s board of directors, together with Jim Aviles, former COO of Merchant e-Solutions. The investment in RMS comes from TCV’s $2.5 billion growth fund.
“TCV has a stellar track record and brings a genuinely distinct approach of real partnership with CEOs and founders as they scale their business to reach market leadership,” said Paul Bentham. Added Gareth Poppleton, Managing Director of RMS: “What especially attracted us to TCV is its tremendous expertise in the fintech sector and broader connections with technology leaders around the world.”
According to the U.K. government’s Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, there are over 1.2 million businesses in the U.K. with less than 50 employees, the majority of which require some form of payments solution. Founded in 2007 by Paul Bentham to bring affordable card payment solutions to small businesses, RMS has grown into a trusted payment services provider to deliver the best payments solutions to SMEs.
“RMS is a very well-run, highly efficient and profitable payments services business with a strong sales culture,” said John Rosenberg. “Paul, Gareth, and the team have built a durable operating model – with no outside investment – and have created a very loyal base of SME customers. We very much look forward to partnering with the team as they continue on their impressive journey.”
TCV was advised in this transaction by Arma Partners (exclusive financial advisor) and Weil, Gotshal & Manges (legal). RMS was advised by Iain Stuart Robson (non-executive director at RMS), PwC (exclusive financial advisor), and Wilkin Chapman LLP (legal).
About Retail Merchant Services Limited:
Retail Merchant Services was founded in 2007 by Paul Bentham to bring affordable card payment solutions to small businesses which are often overcharged and under-serviced by the banks. From credit and debit card payment machines and online payments to accepting payments over the phone, RMS provides the best card payment processing services with no hidden fees. To learn more about RMS, visit: http://www.retailmerchantservices.co.uk/.
About TCV:
Founded in 1995, TCV provides capital to growth-stage private and public companies in the technology industry. TCV has invested approximately $9 billion in leading technology companies and has helped guide CEOs through more than 100 IPOs and strategic acquisitions. Over the past four years, TCV has invested nearly $700 million into leading technology companies headquartered in Europe.
TCV investments include Believe, Brillen.de, Dollar Shave Club, ExactTarget, Expedia, Facebook, GoDaddy, HomeAway, Merkle, Netflix, NewVoiceMedia, Redback Networks, Rent the Runway, Sitecore, Splunk, Spotify, VICE Media, and Zillow. Select TCV financial technology and payment investments include Avalara, Envestnet, FX Alliance, GoFundMe, Green Dot, iPipeline, Lynk Systems, MarketAxess, Payoneer, RiskMetrics Group, Thinkorswim, and WorldRemit. TCV is headquartered in Palo Alto, California, and has offices in New York and London. For more information about TCV, including a complete list of TCV investments, please visit http://www.tcv.com.