Accounting software giant Sage’s payments division Sage Pay has acquired Dublin payments technology company Integral for €20m.
Integral will be rebranded as Sage Pay and will be fully integrated into the Sage Pay business. All of Integral’s 40 employees will be retained within Sage Pay.
Integral was founded in 1989, and provides services to SME retailers that have either standalone or integrated electronic point of sale (EPOS) payments requirements. Its solutions are used at more than 30,000 points-of-sale in the UK and Ireland and its platform has processed 87m transactions in the last 12 months, with a value of €5bn.
Integral specialises in transaction processing/switching services for SMEs via a centrally hosted platform that is integrated with all UK and Irish acquiring banks.
With about 600,000 card accepting merchants in the UK and Ireland, and the market still in growth, the card holder present market represents a significant opportunity for Sage Pay, allowing the company to broaden its customer offering by providing multi-channel payment solutions to customers. It significantly extends Sage Pay’s potential market in the UK and Ireland.
The future of e-payments
“The team at Integral have established an outstanding point-of-sale card-processing service that will enable Sage Pay to provide best-in-class multi-channel payment services,” Simon Black, CEO of Sage Pay Europe Ltd, explained.
“The two businesses share a passion for delivering a great customer experience founded on brilliant software. Sage Pay offers a unique service proposition in payments, and the acquisition of Integral offers even more value to our customers and business partners.”
Sage Pay works with more than 36,000 businesses, providing both e-commerce and mail order/telephone order solutions. The acquisition of Integral will give Sage Pay the capability to integrate cardholder present solutions with its current e-commerce gateway, opening up new possibilities to provide connected multi-channel services.
This will enable customers to accept card payments however and wherever they run their businesses – be it online, in-store, at a trade show or from a market stall.
Sean Wilson, managing director of Integral, said, “This is an exciting new opportunity for our employees, customers and suppliers. The strong technology and cultural fit between the organisations will ensure our combined potential is achieved, which we believe is key for delivering on the opportunities and expectations in the payments ecosystem.”
