We analyse the acquisition of companies in the payment platform sector from the point of view of the corporate finance. UniversalPay has acquired Madrid-based ClearONE. ClearONE offers a service that enables merchants to obtain authorisation or denial of chargeback for credit and debit card purchases made by customers of merchants. The acquisition will integrate ClearONE into Evo Payments International's global infrastructure and facilitate the integration of payment into merchant management for software providers.

We analyse from the point of view of the corporate finance the move by UniversalPay, which has acquired ClearONE. Headquartered in Madrid, ClearONE offers a service consisting of obtaining authorisation or denial of payment for purchases made by credit or debit card by customers of merchants. The transaction will integrate ClearONE into Evo Payments International's global infrastructure and facilitate the integration of payment into merchant management for software providers.

ClearONE, expertise in means of payment markets

The technology company ClearONE was founded in Alcobendas, Madrid, in 2005. It is a leader in integrated payment solutions, so much so that it currently serves more than 15,000 points in Spain and Europe.

ClearONE's payment gateway, linked to the POS system, eliminates human errors when charging cards and issues secure payments. In addition, it speeds up the payment process as a transaction can take 2 or 3 seconds to be approved or rejected by the card issuers. The control of card transactions is absolute and reports can be managed via the web.

ClearONE's considerable growth in operating revenue over the last few years has put the company on the radar of potential investors. The 7 employees that currently make up the business have led the company to achieve operating revenues of €1,275k in 2017, a growth of 60% compared to €796k in 2015.

UniversalPay acquires the whole of ClearONE

UniversalPay EVO Payments' Spanish subsidiary, EVO Payments, has acquired the ClearONE payment gateway, which will enable it to expand its offering to more than 100 point-of-sale management system providers serving more than 15,000 devices in Europe. The deal was confirmed on 29 October, but the final amount of the acquisition has not been disclosed.

UniversalPay is a service of EVO Payments International (a leading international provider of payment services and technology) to offer payment solutions to merchants, from self-employed to large chains. In 2016 they served more than 100,000 customers to process close to 10 billion euros. UniversalPay is regulated by the Bank of Spain and is a member of the national payment scheme 4B and the international payment systems Visa, MasterCard and UnionPay.

UniversalPay's CEO, Jaime Domingo, has highlighted that the incorporation of these new providers will allow the bank to offer a wider range of integrated payment solutions, automating the accounting system, operations and daily management of the business, which will allow merchants to dedicate more time to other tasks such as customer service.