Payroc Doubles Down on SMBs, Embedded Finance, and Larger Merchants

Less than 90 days into closing its acquisition of BlueSnap Inc., Payroc WorldAccess LLC is pushing ahead with its dual strategy of courting small and mid-size businesses that may need a point-of-sale terminal and prospecting larger merchants with integrated payment needs. It sees the acquisition not as an end goal, but another high mark for the 22-year-old payments company.

That’s the take from James Oberman, chief executive of Tinley Park, Ill.-based Payroc. BlueSnap, on which Payroc closed on Oct. 9, is the latest in a string of acquisitions, all meant to push ahead Payroc’s dual merchant strategy, Oberman says.

Payroc’s origins are in serving small and mid-size businesses, often acquired through sales agents and partnerships. Payroc also serves mid-market and enterprise clients, to the point now that business from ISOs and agents represents about 33% of Payroc’s activity, Oberman says. “We have pivoted well to other verticals and integrated payments,” Oberman says. “The BlueSnap acquisition was a continuation of that theme.” In November, for example, it expanded Roc Services to more verticals. Roc Services is an invoicing platform for service-industry merchants and complements its embedded-finance strategy.

BlueSnap will be a catalyst for other initiatives, too, he says, adding, “We’re going to triple down on the business development that BlueSnap already had in motion.” Another benefit is that, because BlueSnap had many international clients, they are coming to Payroc for help serving the U.S. market, he says. And many North American clients have expressed interest in how they can serve international customers. Payroc’s dual approach for global is to serve existing North American businesses that want to expand internationally and to bring international customers who have been with BlueSnap into the North American market, Oberman says.

Payroc, too, is focusing on verticals to boost its merchant portfolio. Its 2022 acquisition of Worldnet, a payment gateway, propelled it into unattended payments. It, too, had a large international presence like BlueSnap. “They already had developed a significant unattended capability,” Oberman says. “We knew unattended would proliferate.”

Worldnet, BlueSnap, and many of Payroc’s other acquisitions—it’s made almost 30 in the last eight years, Oberman says—will continue to fuel its dual strategy of courting SMBs and larger merchants that may need specialized payments options.

The two strategies can overlap. Oberman cited a Midwestern bank that works with Payroc and had a client that specialized in unattended payments. “They bring us that” he says. Likewise, traditional partnerships with ISOs, agents, and financial institutions have typically been horizontal, but with software applications now proliferating, the SMBs served by these partnership are becoming more attractive. “What is happening, with software eating the world, these SMBs are become attractive,” Oberman says. That’s where a product like Roc Services can bolster their prospects, he says.

The 2026 outlook for Payroc is strong, Oberman says, but not without challenges. One of the biggest is balancing its technology prowess and how well acquisitions can be integrated while retaining the unique qualities that made the acquisition attractive in the first place, he says.

“You’re still dealing with people and historical cultures and opinions,” Oberman says. How do you hang on to what makes these companies great and still deliver efficient products and services? “It is always working that balance,” he says.