Acquiring

Choice Hotels International Inc. launched Choice Direct Pay, which allows businesses to make reservations for employees and guests at multiple properties with billing through a centralized invoice. The service works with more than 5,000 U.S. properties.Grocery Outlet Holding Corp. announced customers can order groceries for delivery from nearly 400 stores via online-delivery …

Organizations hoping for another choice when selecting a vendor to process their online electronic benefits transfer transactions for consumers using SNAP can now opt for Forage. San Francisco-based Forage said the U.S. Department of Agriculture approved it as a third-party payment processor for the SNAP program, the shortened term for …

Technology startup BankiFi, which seeks to enable payments and banking functions for small businesses, announced it has received a $4.8 million investment to fund its expansion into North America. Praetura Ventures led the funding round.Focused Labs, a developer of custom payments software, said it has joined the Stripe Partner Ecosystem. Stripe Inc.’s …

Central Payments, a unit of Central Bank of Kansas City, completed a $30 million funding round, which was led by Castle Creek Capital and with more investment from Launchpad Capital. The funding spins the company out from Central Bank.PayGround, a digital wallet for medical bills, launched a “get healthy now, pay …

Finix, a payments provider for software platforms, raised $30 million in its latest funding round, bringing its total funding to $133 million. American Express was among investors.Unit, whose technology allows firms to weave accounts, payments, cards, and other banking services into their products, said it has partnered with Thread Bank, a …

Sionic Mobile Corp., a provider of consumer-to-business payments technology, will launch a program that enables independent sales organizations, agents, independent software vendors and other resellers to provide merchant clients with a new Pay-by-Bank service in the United States. The program, which will launch Sept. 1, is intended to help resellers …

Bruce Lowthers took over a stumbling Paysafe Ltd. back in May, and now with three months evaluating the company behind him, the new chief executive early Wednesday offered encouragement mixed with some tough talk. Speaking particularly about product innovation, Lowthers lowered the boom, citing what he sees as an imbalance …

Financial-technology provider Jack Henry & Associates Inc. said it will acquire Payrailz, a provider of digital-payments technology, including real-time peer-to-peer payments capability. Terms of the transaction, which is expected to close by the end of the month, were not disclosed.Payments platform BlueSnap has agreed to support KeyBank’s U.S payments gateway for e-commerce transactions by middle-market …

Cashless sales in unattended retail locations, such as vending machine and kiosks, jumped significantly in 2021, totaling 62% of sales in October 2021, up from 51% in January 2020, says a report from vending-machine specialist Cantaloupe Inc. As a result of the rise in cashless sales, the percentage of cash …

Merchant acquirers continue to reap the benefits of a bustling economy. Nuvei Corp., a Montreal-based acquirer, said its payments volume increased 38% in the second quarter, and Alpharetta, Ga.-based Priority Technology Holdings Inc. said its bank card processing volume increased 14.3% in the quarter. Nuvei said its payments volume topped …