Tritium Partners seeks buyer for GIACT Systems

Tritium Partners is putting GIACT Systems LLC up for sale, three sources said.

Raymond James is advising on the process, two of the people said.

GIACT, Allen, Texas, provides verification, authentication and funds confirmation to more than 1,000 customers. Clients include financial and lending institutions, insurers, and retail and ecommerce merchants. Melissa Brown, CEO, and Merlin Rise, chief technology officer, launched the company in 2004.

GIACT is expected to sell for $150 million to $200 million, one of the sources said.

Tritium Partners, Austin, acquired a majority of GIACT in January 2015. The lower-middle-market firm is a frequent fintech investor. In addition to GIACT, Tritium owns Inova Payroll, Global Access and PayCommerce. It sold Century Payments to WorldPay in 2013.

Former Austin Ventures executives founded Tritium in 2013. Phil Siegel, a managing partner, was a general partner at Austin Ventures, while David Lack, also a co-founder, was a partner.

Tritium in 2015 closed its debut fund at its $309 million hard cap.

GIACT is the latest deal in the surging payments sector. Payments revenue is expected to hit $2 trillion by the end of 2021, up from the current $1.75 trillion, according to Sharespost.

Cashnet, the payments unit of Blackboard Inc, is up for sale, Buyouts reported. Providence Equity Partners owns Blackboard. Corsair Capital is also expected to announce the winner of the process for Realtime Electronic Payments, or Repay, soon.

Executives for GIACT, Raymond James and Tritium could not be reached for comment.

Action Item: Contact Phil Siegel at +1 512-493-4100