Integrated Payments in the U.S. and Abroad Prove Fruitful for EVO Payments

The integrated-payments phenomenon is paying off for EVO Payments Inc. in the United States and internationally.

While Atlanta-based EVO reported a decrease in first-quarter earnings, its strategy of courting integrated software vendors and companies that support their point-of-sale software continues to reap rewards, which EVO management says will benefit the company financially.

“Our U.S. ISV business unit grew in the mid-teens for the quarter,” said Jim Kelly, EVO chief executive, according to a Motley Fool transcript of EVO’s earnings call Thursday. “We now support ISVs that span over 50 unique vertical markets across our combined dealer and direct ISV networks in the U.S.”

EVO is one of many payments providers adding and expanding their merchant-acquisition efforts by marketing to software vendors. Merchants that use their software tend to attrite less than merchants with just a countertop POS terminal.

“While today our ISV business is heavily concentrated in hospitality, our objective is to further diversify toward supporting software solutions in high-growth verticals with still-low penetration,” Kelly said. Pursuing that, EVO is looking for new ISV relationship and may acquire gateway-integration companies, he said.

European ISVs also are in sight for EVO. Software developers are the primary focus for EVO in the United Kingdom. Kelly said over the last 18 months EVO added more than 25 ISVs in the U.K. and signed more than 4,000 merchant locations.

In March, EVO acquired Way2Pay, an Ireland-based payment gateway. Earlier this week EVO purchased the payment-gateway assets of Mexico City-based SF Systems.