Dive Brief:

• Schaumburg, Illinois-based NMI said today in a news release that it has acquired the payments software firm IRIS, which provides customer relationship management tools and other services to merchants. The companies didn't provide financial details of the deal. 
• NMI will retain IRIS's Brooklyn, New York headquarters as an East Coast office and will bring over 60 employees from IRIS, a spokesperson for NMI said.
• The combination will expand NMI’s offerings beyond gateway services to add merchant prospecting, management and onboarding capabilities, the release said.

Dive Insight:

NMI is a global payment platform that processes $165 billion in payments volume annually for some 3,000 independent service vendors, banks and fintechs that, in turn, service some 255,000 merchants via online, in-app, mobile, in-store and sites without attendants, according to the company.

NMI's merger with IRIS will create "a more seamless, swift onboarding experience and additional touchpoints through all stages of the commerce lifecycle through a merchant-centric CRM built specifically for the payments industry," NMI CEO Vijay Sondhi said in the release.

The purchase transaction closed last month, the spokesperson for NMI said.

The two companies connected their services last year. IRIS added an NMI integration that connected its CRM ticketing system to NMI’s merchant onboarding so that independent sales organizations could "resell gateway services to merchants and onboard their new accounts in as little as a minute," IRIS said in a September release.

NMI has raised capital in recent years that is now enabling it to grow through acquisitions. In 2017, the investment firm Francisco Partners acquired a majority stake in NMI, but another major payments investment firm, Great Hill Partners, also remained an owner. Last September, NMI announced another equity investment, this time from the private equity and venture firm Insight Partners.

Last year, NMI acquired Glendale, California-based USAePay to build up its global omnichannel services in e-commerce, unattended payments, retail and mobile payments.

With the latest acquisition, IRIS President Dimitri Akhrin will remain in his role at the combined company and be a "key stakeholder," the release said.