News

Lightyear Capital LLC has acquired a controlling sake in Naperville, Illinois-based Augeo FI, a loyalty program provider for banks and credit unions, for $140 million. The seller was Augeo Affinity Marketing Inc. Mike Knoop will remain as CEO of Augeo FI.

PRESS RELEASE

NEW YORK — (September 26, 2018) – Lightyear Capital LLC (“Lightyear”), a New York-based private equity firm focused on financial services investing, announced today that investment funds affiliated with Lightyear have acquired a controlling stake in Augeo FI, a market-leading outsourced loyalty program provider for banks and credit unions, from its parent company Augeo Affinity Marketing, Inc. for $140 million. Mike Knoop will remain with Augeo FI as the CEO and will retain the entire management team.

Founded in 2008 and headquartered in Naperville, IL, Augeo FI is a leading provider of outsourced, customized loyalty program solutions for middle-market banks and credit unions. Augeo FI currently serves approximately 1,200 clients, supporting and influencing spend on more than 24 million cards. The company develops solutions to track points earned and drive cardholder behavior, carrying out point redemptions with a simple and easy-to-use interface that is integrated into the vast majority of national processors and online banking software.

Mark F. Vassallo, Managing Partner of Lightyear, commented, “With a proven ability to improve account growth and activity, Augeo FI has achieved a leading position helping middle-market banks and credit unions meet their individual clients’ needs. We are excited about the expansion opportunities for Augeo FI, especially as credit and debit card transaction volume and rewards card usage continue to rise. The business already has significant momentum, and we look forward to working with the Augeo FI management team to invest in and grow their business.”

Mr. Knoop stated, “We are excited to partner with Lightyear to take Augeo FI to the next level as a leader in the loyalty/rewards market, now as a standalone company. We remain committed to product and platform innovation to further support our great clients and partners. This additional capital will allow us to expand our capabilities, such as our pay-with-points offerings, and to continue to invest in technology in order to deliver ever-more sophisticated and customized reporting back to our clients, giving them highly actionable insights they can use to better understand and serve their customers.”

About Augeo FI
Augeo FI is a market-leading, outsourced provider of customized loyalty program solutions for middle-market banks and credit unions. With over 20 years of managing loyalty programs in the financial services space and an experienced management team, Augeo FI operates an industry leading platform, supporting 1,200 loyalty programs for many banks and credit unions in the United States. The company is headquartered in Naperville, IL and operates within a PCI compliant environment, influencing spend for over 24 million cardholders. For more information, on Augeo FI, please visit www.augeofi.com.

About Lightyear Capital LLC
Founded in 2000, Lightyear Capital is a financial services-focused private equity firm based in New York. Through its affiliated private equity funds, Lightyear makes primarily control investments in North America-based, middle-market companies across the financial services spectrum, including asset and wealth management, banking, brokerage, healthcare financial services, insurance, payments and processing and specialty finance. The firm brings focus and discipline to its investment process, as well as operating, transaction and strategic management experience, along with significant contacts and resources beyond capital. For more information, please visit www.lycap.com.