The Opportunity

In November 2019, we invested in Fortis, a business providing software developers and businesses with payment processing capabilities. Fortis was seeking a partner to accelerate its M&A program, bring institutionalization and process to the management team, expand into new verticals, and deepen its penetration of software partners.

• Market Trends: We identified a compelling convergence of tailwinds in the integrated payments space: the monetization of payments has become a core strategy for vertical software businesses, creating strong and durable demand for embedded payment providers like Fortis. In addition, the market is highly fragmented and substantial opportunities exist to acquire capabilities, deepen presence in end-markets and add processing scale.
• Differentiated Sourcing: In 2017 we kicked off our integrated payments campaign alongside one of our Value Creation team members, Greg Cohen. We originally met the Fortis founders through our campaign work in March 2017, establishing a multi-year relationship with the management team prior to investment. Our proactive, thesis-driven approach allowed us to engage with Fortis on its long-term strategic plan, ultimately resulting in a partnership with the business outside of any formal process.

Key Company Highlights

• Deep ERP and Software Partner Integrations Creating Differentiated and Scarce Market Position
• Integrated Technology Creating Sticky, Recurring Merchant Base
• Existing Partnerships Providing Strong Visibility into Growth Opportunity
• Large Universe of M&A Opportunities to Complement Organic Growth
• Attractive Direct Sales Organic Growth Engine
• Scalable Leadership Team Assembled Post-Investment

Value Creation & Outcomes

• Executive Leadership: We placed Greg Cohen, a member of our Value Creation Team, into the CEO role in Q2 2021, providing direct operational leadership at a critical stage of the platform's development and establishing the management continuity required to execute a high-velocity acquisition and growth strategy.

• Acquisition Program & M&A Execution: We played a critical role in the company’s M&A strategy, partnering with the management team to complete over 15 acquisitions since our investment that added capabilities, new end-markets and scale.

• Institutionalization of Business Functions: Alongside our Value Creation Team, we supported the institutionalization of key business functions and board development, including the hiring of various C-suite employees and the addition of multiple Independent Directors, building the organizational infrastructure required to support a scaled, multi-channel payments platform.

• Technology and Operational Infrastructure: We supported the prioritization of Fortis's product roadmap and the hire of a new technology and development lead to increase the velocity and efficiency of product releases, while actively sourcing a new board member with product and technology oversight experience to strengthen governance around the platform's technical direction.

• Financial Progress: Through 2025, the business increased revenue and Adj. EBITDA by more than 13x since we initially invested in 2019 through consistent organic growth and a complimentary M&A program.

• Organizational Scale: Fortis has grown to over 325 employees with a fully assembled management and divisional leadership team, reflecting a materially more scalable organizational infrastructure than existed at the time of our initial investment and a corporate objectives framework designed to focus and simplify execution across the business.

• Platform Positioning: Fortis has established itself as a differentiated and scarce asset in the integrated payments landscape, underpinned by deep ERP integrations with leading platforms including Sage, Acumatica, NetSuite, and Microsoft, and a growing enterprise-level merchant base that positions the company as the leading ERP-payments provider in its target market.