Dive Brief:

• Corcentric, which provides payments software and services, will merge with the special purpose acquisition company North Mountain Merger to become a publicly traded enterprise, the two companies said in a press release on Dec. 10. Corcentric provides large and mid-sized business clients with payments services, cloud-based software and advisory services, including for accounts payable and receivable.
• The combined company expects to be valued at $1.2 billion, based on an 8.1 times multiple of Corcentric's "expected adjusted revenue" of $149 million next year, the release said.
• Corcentric, which will keep its name, aims to become a key network service for business-to-business payments processing, Corcentric President Matt Clark said on a conference call Friday discussing the merger with the New York SPAC.

Dive Insight:

Cherry Hill, New Jersey-based Corcentric has some 2,500 mid-sized and large customers across industries, with a third of them in manufacturing, its largest segment, and about 15% in consumer/retail, according to a presentation the company made to investors.

Corcentric Chairman and CEO Doug Clark founded the company in 1996 as AmeriQuest Transportation and Logistics Resources after acting as president of Amtralease, a national association of truck leasing companies.

The company now has about $100 billion in transaction volume on its network, according to the presentation the company made in conjunction with the SPAC announcement. Some of its competitors in the multi-trillion-dollar industry include AvidXchange, Bill.com and Billtrust. AvidXchange sold shares to the public in a $660 million initial public offering earlier this year and some of those rivals, such as Billtrust, have also been growing recently through acquisitions.

Clark told investors that the company plans to grow through more acquisitions and international expansion. The company currently operates in 12 countries, according to the presentation. 

In February, Corcentric paid $100 million to acquire the Hattiesburg, Mississippi-based integrated payments network company Vendorin from Juvo Technologies, the company said. That acquisition followed shortly after an injection of capital last year from Corcentric's new investor Bregal Sagemount.

"Corcentric's ability to demonstrate consistent growth and high levels of profitability represents an exciting investment opportunity," North Mountain CEO Chuck Bernicker said in the release. "Doug and his team have developed a leading B2B commerce platform focused on transforming how businesses purchase, pay, and get paid."

North Mountain will bring $132 million in cash to the SPAC and the transaction will get an additional boost from a related $50 million private investment in public equity (PIPE) deal. 

SPACs were all the rage last year, but investors' appetite for the initial public offering alternative has tapered this year. A handful of deals have fallen apart this month and Securities and Exchange Commission Chairman Gary Gensler has indicated he's interested in the agency increasing scrutiny of the transactions.

The Corcentric transaction is expected to close in the second quarter of next year, assuming stockholders and regulators approve the transaction.