Five Questions with RevSpring CEO Rahul Gupta

Rahul Gupta, CEO of RevSpring, has more than 30 years of experience in the financial services and payments industries. Before joining RevSpring in January, Gupta was executive vice president and group president of billing and payments solutions for Fiserv. He also served as president of U.S. operations for eFunds, which was acquired by Fidelity Information Services in 2007.

What was your role at Fiserv?

I was most recently president of billing and payments at Fiserv. We focused on various fintech solutions. I ran a group in the billing and payments space. We sent out bills for utilities, insurance companies, telecom, etc. We processed payments for them and consumers would come to our website, or our client’s website, and we would process payments for them electronically. …

GTCR committed to invest as much as $400 million to RevSpring. What does RevSpring do?

RevSpring … helps clients accelerate revenue. … [We] target two sectors: financial services and healthcare. Within healthcare, we target providers or hospitals. We go to hospitals and help them handle interactions, everything from scheduling appointments, the pre-appointments, collecting money from [customers], sending bills electronically or directing [customers] to come make payments. … [Revenue] cycle management is the phrase.

How is it different working for PE than a strategic?

PE is more long-term-focused. We have a longer time horizon, five years. Obviously, we have one large shareholder versus multiple shareholders [with a strategic]. Our strategic plan is a little more focused. We touch base weekly [with PE]. Informally, we might talk way more frequently. Where I tend to interact is on deals, on strategy, on networking. … We want to expand our market and [PE is] helpful on those kinds of things, as needed. But probably [we talk] weekly. I’ve just been with them literally a month so it’s very early days for me.

[At RevSpring,] we would like to do two deals, but we might do one large. We will most likely do one. There is nothing dictating that we do two deals or that we do any deals. This is not about ‘we have to do deals.’ But if two right deals come along, we will do them. …

Why did you choose GTCR?

I’ve known Collin Roche, a senior partner, for many years. They’ve done so many things in and around [fintech]. I’ve gotten to know them. Collin was the main driver but also Aaron Cohen, the other partner. Both are high-quality individuals. I felt comfortable and it felt like a good fit with them.

Every PE firm has different pieces. From my interactions with [GTCR], they’re very strategic in deals. Fiserv didn’t do a ton of deals. With RevSpring, we might add a product company or two deals of that nature. We might add other verticals or add more clients in the same verticals. We will do smaller and medium deals. We want to grow the business aggressively over the next five years. It’s the similar characteristics as a strategic. A strategic might do a deal which is losing money. My sense is we are less likely to do something like that. We will do strategic-like deals here.

What do you think of President Trump’s immigration ban?

It’s an employer issue. Personally, I think this country was built on bringing in the best and brightest to do what they do. It also raises the standard for everyone. Today we live in a global world. Having access to high-quality individuals and appropriate labor is important. I’m not suggesting we should have open borders, but we should be very thoughtful about doing stuff like this. I have confidence the system will adjust, but arbitrary policies don’t make sense.

Photo of Rahul Gupta courtesy of GTCR