Change Merchant Solutions
is now Fortis
FortisPay Doubles Down on Integrated Commerce Acquiring EpicPay and Change Merchant Solutions
NOVI, MI., May 26, 2021 – Fortis Payment Systems, LLC (FortisPay), a payment technology leader for businesses, independent software vendors (ISVs), and developers, announced today the acquisition of EpicPay International, LLC (EpicPay), an award-winning payment facilitation (PayFac) platform and processor, and Change Merchant Solutions, LLC (CMS), an integrated payment solutions provider. These investments will not only bring incremental scale and new technology partnerships to the company but also further enhance FortisPay’s offerings to developers and ISVs. Technology partners will be able to choose from a wide array of operating models while connecting to a single payment platform. Partners can create customized commerce experiences through easy to integrate APIs, an extensive suite of reporting, and go-to-market resources.
Founded in 2001, EpicPay provides flexible, secure, reliable, and seamless integrated payments technology to more than 13,000 clients. As one of the first companies to develop a Payment Facilitator platform in the United States and Canada, EpicPay has established a robust processing infrastructure. The Epic Platform is a proprietary, PCI-validated, and unified commerce payments solution offering unsurpassed pricing flexibility and equipment compatibility.
The combination of the EpicPay Platform with FortisPay’s Zeamster gateway will create a full-service solution spanning point of sale, card-not-present, and mobile acceptance with an automated engagement and reporting suite in modern cloud-based architecture.
Established in 2006, Change Merchant Solutions has spent years creating and nurturing deep partnerships with technology organizations and developers around the nation. Recently, CMS leveraged the FortisPay proprietary platform, Zeamster, to expand its reach as their omnichannel go-to solution for ISVs, enabling them to add new software partners and deepen relationships with existing clients.
The acquisitions expand FortisPay’s presence in the not-for-profit market and further enhance its specialty hospitality business. As the business’ integrate over the coming months, all clients will benefit from the newly added solutions and the high-touch FortisPay engagement model.
“Expansion into new segments via technology has always been part of our strategy. Both acquisitions support our efforts in this vision,” said Jimmy Nafso, President and COO of FortisPay. He added, “In addition, the capabilities that both EpicPay and CMS bring to the business are best-in-class. The full-service EpicPay platform with PayFac capabilities alongside CMS’s industry expertise will transform our business. I couldn’t be more excited to welcome them to the FortisPay family.”
FortisPay and these two new additions have all seen remarkable growth through the pandemic, as more payment experiences have been created in partnership with software companies. The recent investment will give FortisPay the unique ability to support partners through a unified technology platform while leveraging a scaled go-to-market team, regardless of the business model. These acquisitions further demonstrate FortisPay’s unique position as a market leader in delivering modern payments technology specific for targeted verticals.
“Together, we can transform the way software companies integrate not just payments but a full commerce stack into their platforms, “said Greg Cohen, Chairman at FortisPay. “These acquisitions will accelerate our mission to help technology partners scale and deliver amazing experiences to their customers. The ability to offer segment-specific payment solutions, rapidly board new merchants and provide an advanced service experience will define tomorrow’s leaders in the payment industry; and FortisPay is ready for that.”
MAPP Advisors, a fintech advisory firm with a core focus on payments and ISVs, served as a strategic advisor to FortisPay for the EpicPay transaction.