Thompson Street Capital Partners (TSCP), a private equity firm based in St. Louis, and Tom Wimsett, founder and Managing Partner of Wimsett & Company, a Louisville based payments consulting firm, announced today that they have partnered with management to acquire EchoSat, Inc. of Lexington, Kentucky. EchoSat (www.spgnow.com) is a developer and provider of technology solutions for the transmission, translation and security of vital payment data. Terms of the transaction were not disclosed.
EchoSat operates a sophisticated, high-speed Secure Payment Gateway (SPG) network with a particular focus on the petroleum and convenience store end markets. The company’s flexible technology solutions allow merchants and businesses of all types to utilize SPG services on any broadband connection accessed via DSL, cable, wireless or satellite. EchoSat also provides a managed firewall service for customers converting from legacy POS systems to IP-based systems.
According to Bob Dunn, Managing Director of TSCP, “EchoSat occupies a unique market niche as a leading provider of both payment transaction services and network security management. The company’s management team has proven themselves extremely capable of developing differentiated technology solutions that successfully address the increasingly complex challenges merchants face in processing payments quickly, reliably and securely.”
“I am looking forward to partnering with EchoSat’s talented management team and Thompson Street to accelerate the Company’s impressive growth trajectory,” said Tom Wimsett, the former CEO of National Processing Company and the founder and former Chairman and CEO of Iron Triangle Payment Systems. “We believe there is a compelling opportunity to build upon EchoSat’s leading position in the petro and convenience store markets and to expand into other end markets,” stated Tom, who will join the company’s board of directors as Executive Chairman. EchoSat CEO Mark Carl added, “We are excited to be partnering with Thompson Street and Tom Wimsett to accelerate our growth and continue to provide mission critical payments communication and network security services for our customers. We look forward to achieving continued success together.”
