By Allan Maurer

NASHVILLE, TN – Pace Payment Systems, founded in October, has raised $18,885,000 in a mixed equity and debt round led by Brantley Partners V to support its merger with Century Bankcard Services. Prudential Capital Partners III, and Valley Forge Fund VII, also participated in the funding.

Prudential Capital Group and Prudential Capital Partners provided debt capital in conjunction with the equity investment.

The company disclosed the amount of the raise, which was not cited in its news release, in a filing with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission.

The company will operate Century Bankcard’s electronic processing of debit and credit card business.

This debt and equity capital facilitated the merger of Pace and CBS and enabled the combined entity to recapitalize its balance sheet in order to provide the company the resources it required to continue to support its current agents and customers and to expand its successful operating model.

CBS is led by Rick Ferrante, Steve Clark and Scott Scherr, each of whom have significant experience in the payment processing industry.

Pace is led by Paul Christians, who has successfully grown several business service organizations by accelerating internal growth and completing strategic acquisitions.

Prior to the formation of Pace, Christians was the CEO of Prime office Products Inc., a Brantley IV portfolio company that was successfully sold to Staples Inc.

“CBS is an exceptional platform that will support our growth initiatives while continuing to provide industry leading levels of service to our merchant agents and other industry stakeholders,” said Christians.

“This merger is a great opportunity to build on the success CBS has enjoyed since our inception in 1999 and we strongly believe in the benefits it will create for our agent partners and merchant customers.” said Rick Ferrante, senior vice president of CBS.

CBS SVP Steve Clark added, “Partnering with Pace will allow us access to capital to fund marketing initiatives and to pursue strategic acquisitions for the continued expansion of our portfolio. Pace’s management team has demonstrated a proven record of success which will complement the future goals for CBS.”

Pace CFO Jerry Christenson tells TechJournal South that some previous reports saying CBS call center employees would relocate to Nashville were not correct. “We have no plans to relocatte anyone,” he said.

Christenson declined to disclose the number of employees at Pace.

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