Great Hill Partners is seeking a buyer for Vanco, a provider of faith-based payments software, according to three banking and private equity sources.
Great Hill, a Boston private equity firm, has tapped an investment bank to advise on the sale of Vanco, which could fetch as much as $1 billion, according to the people.
Vanco and Great Hill declined to comment.
Founded in 1998, Vanco provides online payments software for more than 45,000 schools, churches, childcare and community organizations, according to the company’s website. Jim McGinnis, the former president of Affinipay, was named Vanco’s CEO in January 2023.
Great Hill’s investment dates to 2014 when Veracity Payments, a portfolio company of Great Hill, acquired Vanco in 2014. Blum Capital sold its Vanco stake via a secondary transaction to Great Hill in 2017, according to PitchBook.
The pace of mergers and acquisition is expected to increase this year after a slow 2024. Private equity firms are under pressure to invest money. The firms are sitting on $500 billion of so-called dry powder, which represent uninvested capital, from funds from vintage years 2020 and 2021 alone, the Wall Street Journal reported citing Preqin data.
Passport on the block
Separately, in another deal, Passport Labs, which provides transportation software and payments, is also on the block, the people said.
Passport has hired advisors and could sell for $300 million.
Passport’s focus is on providing parking compliance and curbside payments for the cities it supports, a spokeswoman told Coins2Day in an emailed response to questions. “As a private company, we don’t disclose financials, nor do we comment on rumors with no basis,” she said.
Khristian Gutierrez and Bob Youakim co-founded Passport in 2010. More than 800 customers, including cities such as Tampa, Florida and Pasadena, California, use Passport’s software to manage on-street parking and payments. The company employs 150 people.
Passport has raised $213.5 million in funding, according to Crunchbase. Investors include Sixth Street, H.I.G. Capital and Bain Capital Ventures.
Gutierrez left Passport in 2021 but returned last year as the company’s CEO. Gutierrez replaced Brian Mooney who had served as Passport’s interim CEO since mid-2023 when David Evans stepped down as chief executive.
