Waud Capital Forms Partnership with TrustCommerce

CHICAGO and SANTA ANA, Calif. September 14, 2024 – Waud Capital Partners, a leading growth-oriented middle market private equity firm, today announced a strategic partnership with TrustCommerce, a premier provider of payment security software and technology that allows clients to process highly secure and compliant payments that are deeply integrated within their core business software.

Waud Capital and Andrew Rueff formed Sphere Payments LLC to facilitate the investment in TrustCommerce. A seasoned executive with more than 20 years of payments technology experience, Mr. Rueff will serve as Executive Chairman of Sphere Payments to guide the company in its next phase of growth. Mr. Rueff and Waud Capital partnered in January 2017 to identify attractive investments in the payments and software industries. Mr. Rueff was previously one of the original founders and architects of TransFirst Holdings, Inc., a leading private equity-backed U.S. merchant solutions provider that was acquired by TSYS (NYSE: TSS) in January 2016 for $2.35 billion.

“TrustCommerce has long been at the forefront of two of the most important trends in payments technology: integrating payments capabilities within mission-critical enterprise software, and providing security and compliance technology necessary to protect all constituents in the payments value chain.” said Mr. Rueff, Executive Chairman of Sphere Payments. “The management team of TrustCommerce has established a strong technology platform with deep vertical market expertise in healthcare and other attractive market segments. This partnership provides TrustCommerce with additional capital and operating experience to extend its product capabilities, expand its relationships with clients and enterprise software providers, and accelerate the growth of the company.”

Founded in 2000 by Rob Caulfield, TrustCommerce was an early innovator in developing tokenization to protect sensitive payment data and has been a leading provider of highly-secure, integrated payments software ever since. TrustCommerce delivers a full suite of payment acceptance solutions, allowing clients to accept payments securely within an omnichannel environment. At closing, Mr. Caulfield and other key executives of TrustCommerce will maintain their current roles with the company and will participate in ownership through Sphere Payments.

Added Justin DuPere, Principal at Waud Capital, “Our partnership with Andrew and TrustCommerce is the result of our careful diligence of the payments technology market. TrustCommerce is a rapidly growing software provider and an innovator within the financial technology landscape. Andrew brings an unprecedented level of expertise in building businesses and delivering strong returns for shareholders over time. We look forward to continuing our partnership and executing on this multi-year growth opportunity.”

Matt Clary, Partner at Waud Capital, added, “This transaction highlights Waud Capital’s disciplined approach of matching experienced industry leaders with the best platforms for growth. Our investment team leveraged its experience in financial technology markets to identify key growth drivers within the payments technology sector. We then developed a relationship with Andrew which resulted in him becoming an Operating Partner in January 2017. Within six months of formalizing our relationship, using our collective network and operating expertise, the Waud Capital team together with Andrew found an attractive platform for growth and completed the transaction with TrustCommerce.”

About TrustCommerce

An innovator and veteran in the payment security software and technology industry, TrustCommerce offers a comprehensive suite of payment software and solutions with a focus on security, data protection, and risk mitigation. Featuring Point-to-Point Encryption (P2PE), tokenization, EMV, and seamless redirects, TrustCommerce solutions assist partners and clients with reducing the cost and complexity of PCI DSS compliance. Whether accepting payments in a card-present or card-not-present environment, TrustCommerce solutions protect transactions and reduce risk. TrustCommerce is a focused provider of integrated solutions to the healthcare sector, as well as other specialized verticals focused on providing a high level of security to their clients. To learn more about TrustCommerce, and its full breadth of products and solutions, visit www.TrustCommerce.com.

About Waud Capital Partners

Based in Chicago, Waud Capital Partners is a leading growth-oriented private equity firm with total capital commitments of approximately $2.1 billion since its founding in 1993. Waud Capital partners with exceptional management teams to build market leading companies within two industries: healthcare services and business and technology services. Since its founding, Waud Capital has successfully completed more than 210 investments, including platform companies and follow-on opportunities. For additional information on Waud Capital, visit www.waudcapital.com.