TriumphPay plans to consolidate payment processes into a single, integrated platform for what CEO Jordan Graft said will be the first transportation payments network. To do that TriumphPay was missing one key element: a settlement process.
It is solving that piece of the puzzle through the acquisition of HubTran. TriumphPay, a division of Triumph Bancorp (NASDAQ: TBK), announced Thursday morning that it has entered into a definitive agreement to acquire HubTran, which provides cloud-based automation software for transportation industries. The company is paying $97 million in cash for HubTran, subject to customary purchase price adjustments and closing conditions. The deal requires regulatory approval and is expected to close in Q2.
“Combining TriumphPay and HubTran will allow us to create a fully integrated payments network for transportation-servicing brokers and factors,” Graft said in a statement. “The network will be open to all joining participants and will provide tools and services to create frictionless presentment, settlement and payment of invoices in transportation. The future of freight payments looks very different starting today, and we are excited to bring this transformational product to the industry for the benefit of all participants.”
Graft spoke with FreightWaves co-founder and CEO Craig Fuller for a special Fuller Speed Ahead episode. The entire episode will appear on FreightWaves’ social media channels Thursday morning and broadcast on FreightWavesTV at 10 a.m. ET on Thursday.
Watch: Fuller Speed Ahead with TriumphPay’s Jordan Graft
In that interview, Graft explained the logic behind the HubTran acquisition and what TriumphPay is building.
“As part of that acquisition, we are creating the first transportation payments network,” he told Fuller. “And that looks very different from what TriumphPay is today, and it’s an exciting opportunity for us to bring something to the industry that hasn’t been there before and [that] brings a lot of value to all the participants in the industry.”
Graft noted TriumphPay’s history as a factoring business, but said leadership saw “greater opportunity to create greater connectivity between the constituents in the market” by opening up TriumphPay to integrations that would “invite brokers and factors into the network.”
TriumphPay already offers tools and services to increase automation, mitigate fraud and create back-office efficiency throughout the payment process. The addition of HubTran’s artificial intelligence and machine-learning capabilities will allow TriumphPay to add further value through enhancements in presentment, settlement and payment capabilities for shippers, 3PLs and their carriers and factors.
“TriumphPay prior to acquiring HubTran did not have settlement,” Graft added. “That’s the functionality for a broker to finalize the amount to pay on an invoice, handle accessorials and all the changes that come up on an invoice between rate confirmation and the invoice.
“Acquiring HubTran allows us to inject that settlement functionality into TriumphPay and that’s what allows us to turn TriumphPay into a payments network with end-to-end structure and integrated transaction from when the carrier or factor generates the invoice all the way through the broker approving it to payment and the actual remittance that goes along with that payment,” Graft added.
“We’re very excited about this combination and the tremendous value it will create for our customers,” said Matt Bernstein, founder and chief executive officer of HubTran. “In TriumphPay, we’ve found a great fit for our product and for our team members.”
HubTran automates repeatable and costly operational tasks. It has integrations with leading transportation management system (TMS) providers and earlier this month launched its Lights-Out Processing solution. Lights-Out Processing automatically indexes documents, extracts relevant data and validates information and documentation against load details and customer-specific billing requirements, the company said. When all requirements are met, it settles the load in the TMS without human intervention.
Bernstein also joined Graft and Fuller on the episode and explained why now was the time for the company to sell.
“We’ve just been laser-focused on building out our technology for brokers and factors for the past five, six years,” he said. “From time to time, folks would come to me and say, ‘Why don’t we combine and tie up, etc.’ and my answer was always, ‘This is really not the right time.’”
Bernstein noted that HubTran saw great potential with its technology, but in TriumphPay, that technology could now match up with the right partner. The two companies previously announced an integration of their technologies in July 2020.
“We’ve gotten to know each other over time and I think we really share a common vision, which is all about creating this place where all these industry participants can enjoy this instaneous and effortless payment – you provide the service you get paid,” Bernstein said.
“This acquisition, and the subsequent integration of HubTran’s powerful settlement capabilities into our platform, underscores Triumph’s commitment to the transportation industry. It brings with it existing integrations with over 230 freight brokerage and 50 factoring clients and will materially advance our strategy to create a seamless payment experience,” Aaron P. Graft, CEO of Triumph Bancorp, said in a statement. “We are committed to consistently evolve and enhance that experience for freight broker, carrier and factoring clients, with the addition of new value-added services to be announced in the near future.”