AffiniPay, which provides online payment services and software to the professional sector, is looking for a new owner, according to four banking and private equity sources.
Backed by TA Associates, AffiniPay has hired advisors and launched a sales process. The auction began a few weeks ago, and the Austin-based company has been holding fireside chats, one source told Coins2Day. AffiniPay produces more than $100 million of EBITDA and could sell for 20 times that figure—about $2 billion—the sources added.
The AffiniPay sales process is expected to attract private equity and strategic buyers. The company was last up for sale in 2020 when it had $30 million in EBITDA and also was seeking bids of 20 times that figure. “The business has done well since then—they’ve quadrupled EBITDA,” one banker said.
AffiniPay helps with digital payments across various industries, including legal, accounting, as well architecture and design. AffiniPay said in March that Pay Later, its fee lending solution for the legal sector, had been used by over 54,000 legal professionals to process more than $125 million since launching in April 2022.
Amy Porter founded AffiniPay in 2005 and served as its chief executive until 2020, according to her LinkedIn. Porter is currently AffiniPay’s executive chairman while Dru Armstrong serves as CEO. (Porter has since launched Skylark Private Equity Partners, a private equity firm that invests in lower middle market companies.)
PE firms have owned AffiniPay for much of the last decade. Great Hill Partners acquired AffiniPay in 2015 for an undisclosed amount. In 2020, they sold it to TA Associates.
AffiniPay declined to comment when reached by Coins2Day, and TA Associates didn’t respond to requests for comment.