CHARLOTTE – AvidXChange is expanding its footprint yet again.
The Charlotte-based fintech software provider has acquired BankTel Systems, an accounts payable firm based in Columbus, Mississippi, which is said to provide accounting solutions to more than 20 percent of banks across the U.S.
With this acquisition, AvidXChange said it is poised to become the dominant provider of invoice-to-payment solutions for midmarket customers in the financial services sector.
“This is the fifth acquisition we’ve made in ten years and it’s unique because of BankTEL’s strength in the financial services market,” Michael Praeger, AvidXchange’s CEO and co-founder, said in a statement. “I know first-hand what it takes to build a successful company from scratch, and the niche BankTEL has been able to carve out with middle market banks is the perfect complement to what we’ve worked to create over the last 19 years at AvidXchange.”
As an AvidXchange company, BankTEL will be able to offer its clients access to the AvidPay Network to complete the AP process with electronic payments, whil AvidXchange’s financial services customers will get access to account offerings through BankTEL’s product suite.
Launched 19 years ago in the back of a Charlotte coffee shop with five employees, AvidXChange has experienced exponential growth in recent years – growing at a rate of about 45 percent for the last five years running.
Now it’s one of the country’s largest B2B payment networks. In 2017, its value soared past $1 billion, becoming a “unicorn” according to private equity standards, when it closed on $300 million in financing.
Last December, it announced plans to invest $41 million as part of its growth commitment.
It plans to double its headquarters in Charlotte and build a second primary location just outside Salt Lake City, Utah.
