Fiserv Inc. has acquired Radius8 Inc., a localization platform that could enable businesses who use Fiserv’s merchant acceptance products to digitally target customers based on their physical location.
Brookfield-based Fiserv (Nasdaq: FISV) acquired Radius8 for “approximately $14 million” on March 1, according to Fiserv’s most recent quarterly report with the Securities and Exchange Commission. Based in Princeton, New Jersey, Radius8 was founded in 2015 by four co-founders, including the company’s CEO, Sandeep Bhanote.
The SEC filing also details Fiserv's acquisition of Ondot Systems, which was completed on Jan. 22 for approximately $270 million, net of $13 million of acquired cash. Fiserv had announced the Ondot acquisition but hadn't disclosed the terms.
Fiserv recorded a pre-tax gain of $12 million on the deal as a result of the remeasurement of its previous noncontrolling equity interest in Ondot based on the equity interest's fair value on the date of the acquisition.
Among other recent acquisition activities, Fiserv has announced a definitive agreement to acquire Pineapple Payments and said it expects the deal to close in the second quarter of 2021.
Fiserv CEO Frank Bisignano referenced Radius8 in Fiserv’s first-quarter earnings call on Tuesday, calling it “a cloud-based platform that (adds) hyper-localized commerce capabilities to Carat, thereby enhancing our beyond the buy button strategy.”
Carat is Fiserv’s omnichannel commerce solution for large national and multinational companies, as part of the company’s merchant acceptance business. Clover, a cloud-based point-of-sale product acquired through the 2019 merger with First Data Corp., is Fiserv’s merchant acceptance product for small and mid-sized businesses.
Fiserv also announced Tuesday that businesses that use Carat or Clover will be able to accept customers’ payments through PayPal or Venmo using a touch-free QR code. This new functionality builds on other contactless payment options that Fiserv (Nasdaq: FISV) has rolled out amid the Covid-19 pandemic, including its scanning technology for restaurant ordering and enabling ExxonMobil gas stations to accept Google Pay.
