Conshy payment company North Lane Technologies merged with a Chicago firm to form Onbe

Two fintech firms — one from the Philadelphia region and other from Chicago — merged at the end of 2020 and have rebranded to form a single, unified payments brand: Onbe. The merger of North Lane Technologies and daVinci Payments comes from a majority equity investment by Centerbridge Partners, and the newly formed company specializes in payment services for large enterprises.

You may have heard of North Lane, but from many moons (and names) ago. The company started out about 25 years ago as Ecount, and was acquired by Citigroup around 2008. Eventually it became an entity called Citi Prepaid Card Services, which Wirecard AG acquired in 2017. When Wirecard was seeking an acquisition last year, it renamed itself as North Lane Technologies (aptly named after where its located in the Spring Mill Campus in Conshohocken), and was acquired by Syncapay. The companies merged in December 2020, and took on the name Onbe last month.

And oh yeah, daVinci Payments was formerly known as Swift Prepaid Solutions.

Phew.

The new name, Onbe, is derived from the words “on behalf” — that is, of the company’s customers, CMO Kevin Brown told Technical.ly this week. He’s a part of a now-300-person company with one unified leadership team, including Juli Spottiswood, who’s the company’s chairman and interim CEO while they search for a permanent head.

Both companies were focused on corporate-funded payments. daVinci primarily focused on segments like the incentives and promotions space, and North Lane worked in refunds and disbursements and payroll.

Onbe now specializes in a variety of payment forms for customers, including payroll, payouts, incentives and marketplace services, and payments can be customized for digital wallets for online, in-store and in-app purchases.

“It’s a merger of both equals and of competitors,” Spottiswood said. “The difference is now you’re bringing two payment pioneers together, and there’s some magic that can happen when you merge two innovative, strong companies.”

The two companies maintained all but a one or two employees in the merger, and now operate as East Coast and Midwest campuses. And Spottiswood said she foresees growth for the company, with roles being recruited at both locations. The Conshy location currently has about 125 employees, and is hiring.

The unified company’s work revolves around three things, she said: making sure it’s providing “excellent service to clients, staying focused on innovation and growth.”