Two of Cincinnati’s fastest growing companies are pairing up for a partnership that they hope will help each grow even more.
Payment processing firm Infintech has joined forces with business financing provider The Business Backer to offer each other’s services to their client base.
The two firms will share revenue in the deal, Infintech President Ryan Rybolt said. Infintech can now offer financing options to customers for which it processes payments. And Business Backer can offer payment processing to business owners whom it has provided financing.
“We think it makes our customers better off,” said Business Backer CEO Jim Salters.
Both companies share a philosophy of being transparent and ethical, he said.
“That’s very rare in Ryan’s industry and in ours,” Salters told me. “This is all about a mission to make our country’s small businesses stronger.”
Rybolt told me both companies view the pact, formalized around year-end, as a way to boost sales as well as to better serve customers.
“With partnerships, we consider, ‘What is it offering and can our customers benefit?’” Infintech President Ryan Rybolt said. “We know Business Backer runs a sound shop, and it made sense for us to have that tool in our tool belt. We’re trying to double our work forces by adding each other’s sales forces.”
Salters said Business Backer has already won a client that it likely wouldn’t have picked up without being able to offer payment processing.
Infintech processes nearly $2 billion a year in credit-card transaction volume and just added its 10,000th customer. The Sharonville-based company employs 65. Blue Ash-based Business Backer employs 55 and has done $150 million in financing. The six-year-old company completes about 200 transactions per month, mostly providing financing to small businesses or helping them find financing from other sources.
Business Backer made last year’s Inc. 500 list of the nation’s fastest growing companies. It generated 316 percent growth and $9.6 million in revenue. Infintech has made the Business Courier’s Fast 55 list of fast-growing companies several times. It generated 90 percent growth in 2012 to $5.9 million in revenue.