A card terminal is an unassuming piece of equipment. It sits beside the till, waiting for a customer to finish choosing lunch, a haircut or a pair of shoes. Central Payment built its business around getting that ordinary object, and the services behind it, into the hands of merchants. The interesting machinery was the network of people who sold it.
- Reach the counter: independent agents sold processing to small businesses nationwide.
- Sell in stages: TSYS took control in 2012 and bought the final stake in 2018.
- Learn the limit: the payments pitch did not transfer easily to loyalty software.
A business built for the counter
Founded in 2005 by twin brothers Matt and Zach Hyman, CPAY concentrated on small and medium-sized businesses. Restaurants, personal services and retailers were central to its customer mix. These were merchants whose payment needs had to coexist with everything else happening that day. Accepting cards was essential; becoming an expert in merchant acquiring was unlikely to make the afternoon’s list.
CPAY supplied processing, terminals, point-of-sale systems, mobile acceptance and virtual terminals. Gift cards and loyalty tools extended the offering beyond the transaction. Its position in the market was the merchant-facing business connecting a local counter to larger payment infrastructure, with agents helping sell and deploy the service. TSYS’s acquisition filing explicitly identified that independent sales agent model.
Its recruiting material helps explain the appeal. CPAY advertised an agent portal called Central Station, activation assistance, relationship managers and round-the-clock support. A 2014 advertisement promised statement analysis and proposal turnaround in 30 minutes. The proposition had two customers: the merchant accepting a card, and the agent trying to win that merchant’s account.
Four bites at the same company
In August 2012, TSYS paid $66 million for 60% of CPAY. Contemporary reporting put the business at more than 40,000 merchants, with about 700 agents. For TSYS, the attraction included distribution: a route into businesses that a processor could not reach simply by having processing capacity. For CPAY, the partnership offered a larger company’s resources while the founders continued running the operation.
TSYS increased its stake to 75% in 2014. Its announcement valued CPAY at $250 million, more than twice the initial $110 million valuation. In 2017, another $70 million bought another 10%. In April 2018, $126 million purchased the remaining 15%, implying a whole-company value of $840 million. The transaction adviser reported nearly 80,000 merchant customers by then.
Implied total company values at successive TSYS transactions. These bars show valuation, not cash paid to founders.
The distinction matters. The final cheque was not an $840 million purchase payment, and the $126 million was not a venture round. The founders told FT Partners that a relationship initially arranged for two years lasted six. Their ownership diminished in steps while the value attached to the business increased. The exit itself became a long-running partnership.
Free hardware has a second page
What did a merchant pay? The surviving paperwork shows a negotiated account rather than one universal price. A historical CPAY application leaves processing rates blank but prints charges including a $9.50 statement fee and a $25 monthly minimum, reduced by qualifying discount fees. Those are historical document terms, not a current quote.
The same paperwork puts conditions around equipment. An early end to a three-year initial term required return of supplied equipment within 30 days or specified charges could apply. A free terminal could therefore sit inside a paid, continuing relationship. CPAY’s business model combined recurring processing revenue with a sales channel whose recruiting offers included residual compensation and buybacks.
The sale the salespeople could not make
The founders also wanted to help merchants bring customers back. SpotOn’s loyalty and marketing tools appeared in CPAY’s offering. The commercial logic was attractive: payment revenue might help support the expense of distributing software. An existing agent network already knew the people who could buy it. Why begin that journey again?
“training existing payment sales professionals to properly sell software was an uphill battle”
Zach Hyman · Reforming Retail, 2020
Zach’s account identifies the snag. The channel’s familiarity with processing did not automatically equip it to explain software. A discussion about rates and card acceptance differed from a discussion about customer engagement. SpotOn Transact emerged as a separate business in 2017. In April 2018, it announced a $20 million investment led by the Hyman brothers. The new company pursued integrated payments and software.
Read the statement, too
CPAY’s record includes a merchant-fee dispute. Custom Hair Designs by Sandy and Skip’s Precision Welding brought a class action alleging misrepresented, added or inflated fees. CPAY denied the allegations. A settlement received court approval in August 2022. The settlement administrator reports that CPAY paid approximately $54.4 million for the benefit of class customers and that all eligible payments had been issued by January 25, 2023.
That belongs beside the growth figures. A successful distribution network creates relationships at scale; the subsequent bill still determines what each relationship feels like. TSYS, meanwhile, merged with Global Payments in 2019. The standalone CPAY story is best understood through its dated transactions and products, rather than treating an old customer count as a fresh operating update.
There is a useful way to read that paperwork alongside the sales story. The merchant buys an outcome: a payment accepted and an account supported. The agent offers a route to it. But rates, equipment obligations and later charges live in the agreement. Comparing providers therefore requires more than comparing the box beside the till. It requires understanding which services are included, which costs continue and what happens when the relationship ends.
The part worth borrowing
The practical lesson is to build support around the person doing the selling, then test every new product against the conversation that person can actually have. CPAY’s agent infrastructure made a repeatable payments offer easier to distribute. Software demanded another explanation. For merchants comparing providers, the useful exercise is equally concrete: put processing, equipment, support and exit terms on the same page. The terminal is only the object on the counter. The agreement is the relationship.
Follow the transaction
Company channels, deal history and the next chapter.