Dive Brief:

• Fleetcor Technologies said Wednesday that it has purchased a majority ownership stake in Zapay, a Brazilian company that provides a mobile app that aids drivers in paying vehicle taxes, registration expenses, and tickets for driving violations. A spokesperson declined to say how much was invested.
• Zapay is integrated into Brazil’s national traffic agency in all 27 states and is increasing annual revenue at a 60% clip, according to a Wednesday press release about the investment.
• Separately, Fleetcor also said this week that it will adopt a new name later this month, becoming Corpay on March 25. “The Corpay name better represents what we do now, which is provide corporate payment solutions,” the company’s CEO, Ron Clarke, said in a Thursday release.

Dive Insight:

As part of its investment in Zapay, Fleetcor also acquired the right to purchase the rest of the Brazilian company in four years. The investment amount was “immaterial” from the perspective of Fleetcor, according to the spokesperson for that company.

Zapay “advances our vehicle payments strategy in Brazil,” Clarke said in the release. “We invested in the company to capitalize on the attractive two-way cross-sell opportunity. We have already begun cross-selling Zapay’s solution to our existing 7 million drivers and, conversely, cross-selling our existing suite of vehicle payment products to Zapay’s client base.”

With its investment this week, Fleetcor follows in the footsteps of other major U.S. payments companies that have recently invested in Brazilian businesses.

San Francisco card network giant Visa acquired the Brazilian company Pismo last year for $1 billion, buying a cloud-native, Sao Paulo-based company that provides payments and banking services to fintechs and financial institutions all over the world.

Also last year, Brookfield, Wisconsin-based payment processor behemoth Fiserv acquired Brazilian company Skytef, declining to provide financial details of the deal. Skytef, which offers payment tools such as electronic funds transfer solutions and point-of-sale machines, was a means for Fiserv to expand its network of software and merchant partners, the U.S. company said when it purchased the operation.