Payment venture raises equity, debt for $37M buy

By Geert De Lombaerde Posted on November 18, 2009 at 8:21 am

Pace Payment Systems, an ambitious Burton Hills-based payment processing company, has raised almost $19 million in debt and equity, money that will help it merge with a California company. Pace is led by former Prime Office Products CEO Paul Christians and backed by Claritas Capital. Check out its site here.

SEE ALSO: Pace’s SEC filing detailing its offering

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Tags: acquisitions, Century Bankcard Services, Claritas Capital, debt offerings, information technology: finance, Pace Investment Partners, Pace Payment Systems Inc., Paul Christians, payment processors, Prime Office Products Inc., private equity, stock offerings  

Comdata launches jet business application

By Geert De Lombaerde Posted on October 21, 2009 at 9:28 am

Brentwood-based payment processor Comdata has teamed with Mercury Air Group to market software that tracks and automates fuel delivery and payments from companies in the fractional jet industry.

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Tags: Aviation, Business travel, Comdata Corp., information technology: finance, Mercury Air Group Inc., payment processors  

Insurance software venture in consulting alliance

By Geert De Lombaerde Posted on October 5, 2009 at 12:31 pm

Brentwood-based Specific Software Solutions has hooked up with a Florida-based workers’ compensation insurance consulting firm to gain access to new agents for its modeling software.

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Tags: human resources, information technology: finance, information technology: health care, insurance, Specific Software Solutions LLC, The WorkComp Advisory Group, workers' compensation  

Facecard’s consumer challenge

By Geert De Lombaerde Posted on September 23, 2009 at 9:44 am

An analyst at Javelin Strategy & Research says Ed Braswell and his team at edo Interactive will have to work hard to get a large number of people to migrate to their form of plastic payment.

“If you have to concentrate spending on a credit or debit card, migrating that behavior from existing reward programs — migrating or extricating them from existing bank relationships — is always difficult,” Cundiff told the E-Commerce Times. “Any sort of attempt to engender changes on the part of consumers is always going to be difficult.”

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Tags: Bruce Cundiff, consumer spending, credit cards, E-Commerce Times, Ed Braswell, edo Interactive Inc., information technology: finance, Javelin Strategy & Research  

Franklin entrepreneur pitches Congress on mortgage-tracking app

By Geert De Lombaerde Posted on September 18, 2009 at 11:22 am

Speaking to a House Financial Services subcommittee, Smart Data Strategies CEO Susan Marlow says regulators and lawmakers looking to get a handle on systemic risk in the financial services sector should think about using her services.

Under the Home Mortgage Disclosure Act, data on mortgage transactions is collected at the census track level, which includes large areas spanning different neighborhoods, versus at the individual parcel level. Individual parcel data has been proven to provide more accurate measures of distribution of households by income level, for instance.

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Tags: information technology: finance, mortgages, residential real estate, Smart Data Strategies Inc., Susan Sherman Marlow  

Two local health care players on IT best-of list

By Geert De Lombaerde Posted on September 15, 2009 at 10:59 am

Healthways has been ranked 35th on the annual InformationWeek 500 list of top information technology organizations. The only other locally headquartered ranked in the top list’s top half is HCA. First Horizon, the Memphis-based parent of First Tennessee Bank, also ranks in the top 50.

SEE ALSO: Healthways’ release on the topic

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Tags: banking, company rankings, disease management, First Horizon National Corp., HCA Inc., Healthways Inc., information technology, information technology: finance, information technology: health care, InformationWeek 500  

iPayment getting new digs out West

By Geert De Lombaerde Posted on September 14, 2009 at 8:28 am

The Los Angeles-area offices of Nashville-based payment processor iPayment will soon move to space in Westlake Village, a little west from their current location. The company has signed a lease for more than 30,000 square feet.

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Tags: California, commercial real estate, information technology: finance, iPayment Inc., office space, payment processors  

Permanent General invests in customer service

By Geert De Lombaerde Posted on September 3, 2009 at 8:08 am

The Nashville-based auto insurer has signed a contract with Atlanta-based Jacada to streamline its customer service technology.

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Tags: customer service, information technology: finance, insurance, Jacada Inc., Permanent General Cos., property & casualty insurance  

edo boosts executive ranks

By Geert De Lombaerde Posted on September 1, 2009 at 11:15 am

Nashville-based Edo Interactive, which  has hired Jay Graves to be its chief technology officer and Lisa McGinty to be VP of card services. Graves, pictured here, ran and sold SmartDM earlier this decade and was CEO of Hobby Lobby International until this spring. McGinty comes to Edo with years of prepaid and gift-card experience. Edo, which markets digital payment platforms, recently raised more than $8 million.

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Tags: edo Interactive Inc., financial instruments, information technology: finance, Jay Graves, Lisa McGinty, SmartDM Inc.  

Remember Private Business?

By Geert De Lombaerde Posted on August 18, 2009 at 6:51 am

Now called Goldleaf Financial Solutions, the financial technology firm that was headquartered in Brentwood until last year has signed a deal to sell to Jack Henry & Associates for about $19 million. The per-share sale price of 98 cents is less than a sixth of where the stock (Ticker: GFSI) was trading in the spring of 2007.

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Tags: acquisitions, Atlanta, banking, Goldleaf Financial Solutions Inc., information technology: finance, Jack Henry & Associates Inc.  

Bank renegotiates data deal

By Geert De Lombaerde Posted on August 14, 2009 at 12:26 pm

Clarksville-based First Advantage Bancorp (Ticker: FABK) has extended its deal with IT provider Fiserv, a move that “may” save it more than $1 million by 2015.

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Tags: banking, Clarksville, First Advantage Bancorp, Fiserv Solutions Inc., information technology: finance  

BofA could lose Lebanon

By Geert De Lombaerde Posted on July 30, 2009 at 9:14 am

After a software glitch rejected more than 200 Lebanon city employees’ paychecks, Mayor Philip Craighead tells Channel 4 he’s looking for a local bank to replace Bank of America.

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Tags: Bank of America Corp., banking, information technology: finance, Lebanon, Wilson County  

Brilliant!

By Walker Duncan Posted on June 1, 2009 at 2:52 pm

Nashville’s edo Interactive has been named one of Entrepreneur’s Top 100 Brilliant Companies for 2009.

Edo created the “facecard,” a prepaid debit MasterCard that lets customers sample new products. This “preward” strategy not only gets products in a key demographic’s hands, but also lets businesses track their marketing goals and sales locations

The company is led by former Link2Gov CEO Ed Braswell. The company has received venture backing from Claritas Capital. It’s also listed as a portfolio company of the Nashville Capital Network’s Angel fund.

See the full list.

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Tags: Claritas Capital Management Services Inc., Ed Braswell, edo Interactive Inc., entrepreneurship, information technology: finance, Link2Gov, Nashville Capital Network, Nashville Capital Network Angel Fund  

Looking to organize all that vendor paperwork?

By Geert De Lombaerde Posted on May 28, 2009 at 7:15 am

Milt Capps reports on the local start-up who’ll help you get a grip on the myriad contracts you have to track. Former Goldleaf Financial Solutions counsel Michael Berman has been raising angel capital for Network Contract Solutions LLC.

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Tags: entrepreneurship, information technology: finance  

Payment processor hires CIO

By Geert De Lombaerde Posted on May 12, 2009 at 9:10 am

Cool Springs-based Solveras Payment Systems has recruited a former Visa and Federal Reserve IT executive to head up its tech operations.

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Tags: information technology: finance, Jeffrey A. Fisher, payment processors, Solveras Inc.