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vertical opportunities
with
Joel Leonoff
Optimal Payments
In March 2015 Optimal Payments agreed to pay €1.1 billion (US$1.2 billion) for one of its largest competitors, Skrill Group. The deal closed in August and helps Optimal, which is headquartered in the Isle of Man,
expand an already formidable global footprint for its suite of payments services, but CEO Joel Leonoff says the company still has an appetite for M&A. He spoke with Paybefore about what the combination of Skrill and Optimal means for e-commerce, customers and the combined company, which had total revenue of $697 million in 2014. The combined company is also set to be listed on the main market of the London Stock Exchange upon approval from the U.K. Listing Authority.
Paybefore: How do you describe Optimal Payments for the uninitiated? What’s your 10- second elevator pitch?
Joel Leonoff: We are a global online payments provider, facilitat- ing the movement of money around the world for consumers and mer- chants in 200 different countries. Through our NETBANX platform, which is a payment processing engine and gateway, we help merchants accept payments on their Websites. Our NETELLER service enables consumers to store value and move that value to merchants to pay for purchases.
Paybefore: How much of your business is direct to consumer and how much is B2B?
JL: NETELLER is a bit of both because we have to integrate with merchants that accept it, but it’s a consumer-facing product. NETBANX is more B2B—our customers are merchants using our payments gateway to capture new business.
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