Lightyear Capital Closes Single-Asset Continuation Vehicle

NEW YORK--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Lightyear Capital, a New York-based private equity firm that partners with growing companies at the nexus of financial services and technology, healthcare, and business services, today announced the closing of a single-asset continuation fund transaction in connection with the sale of its portfolio company, ampliFI Loyalty Solutions (“ampliFI” or the “Company”), from Lightyear Fund IV to a newly formed continuation vehicle managed by an affiliate of Lightyear Capital (the “Continuation Fund”). ampliFI will continue to be managed by Lightyear via the Continuation Fund, which was anchored by investment funds affiliated with Neuberger Berman as the lead investor, alongside several other new and existing investors.

ampliFI is data-driven technology and analytics provider of loyalty solutions to banks and credit unions with assets under $50 billion for their debit and credit card programs.

Lightyear Fund IV initially invested in ampliFI in 2018, successfully carving out the business from Augeo. During the following five years, Lightyear significantly invested in building out the management team, upgrading ampliFI’s technology platforms, and launching several new real time rewards products, including pay with points, fuel with points, and check out with points. These value creation initiatives have enabled the Company to grow EBITDA by over 3x.

Mark Vassallo, Managing Partner at Lightyear, said, “The transaction underscores Lightyear’s commitment to our partnership with ampliFI, while providing an attractive liquidity option for our Fund IV investors. We are excited to continue to work alongside management in ampliFI’s next chapter of growth and are very grateful for the support from our new and existing investors.”

“Over the past five years, we successfully transformed ampliFI from a processing company to a fast-growing bank technology and data analytics firm. We are proud of the growth and success of the Company to date and are excited about the opportunity to continue building on that momentum in partnership with the ampliFI team,” said Jay Comerford, Managing Director at Lightyear.

“The partnership with Lightyear provided industry expertise, thought leadership, and a robust operating network, which helped us accelerate growth and transform our business. We believe we are in the early innings of our real-time rewards program and our recent exclusive partnership wins. This new investment will allow us to continue to deliver our best-in-class experience for our customers and card holders as we continue to scale our platform, and we look forward to our continued relationship with Lightyear,” commented Mike Knoop, CEO of ampliFI.

“The ampliFI team has displayed extraordinary talent and dedication over the past five years, and we believe the Company has multiple levers for continued growth,” stated Chris Casciato, Managing Director at Lightyear.

Evercore served as exclusive financial advisor to Lightyear and Davis Polk & Wardwell LLP served as legal counsel.

About ampliFI Loyalty Solutions:

ampliFI Loyalty Solutions is a data-driven, industry-leading loyalty and engagement provider, offering custom rewards programs for financial institutions nationwide. With over 25 years of innovative experience, ampliFI delivers branded loyalty programs for credit and debit cards tailored to financial institutions. Being a pure loyalty program provider, ampliFI is provider-agnostic, giving clients flexibility integrating into their existing processing relationships.

ampliFI’s robust and innovative solutions include a suite of real-time rewards, unique earning and redemption opportunities, total relationship rewards, and full cardholder support. ampliFI gives issuers the power to customize and manage their program to align with their market strategies and provides data analytics that highlight performance and engagement insights on cardholder behavior to drive positive ROI. The Company is headquartered in Naperville, IL, with an on-site customer contact center, as well as PCI compliant operations. ampliFI is influencing and supporting over 10 million cardholders and is Visa’s exclusive domestic provider for their loyalty product. For more information, please visit http://www.amplifiloyalty.com.

About Lightyear Capital:

Lightyear Capital is a New York-based private equity firm that partners with growing companies at the nexus of financial services and technology, healthcare, and business services. For over 20 years, Lightyear has worked closely with management and leveraged its industry expertise, network of advisors, and operating resources to accelerate growth and build market leading businesses. As of December 31, 2023, the firm had assets under management of $5.0 billion. For more information, please visit http://www.lycap.com.