Stax

Stax is a fintech company that has carved out a significant presence in the payment processing industry by offering an integrated, all-in-one platform for businesses. Founded in 2014 as Fattmerchant by Suneera Madhani and Sal Rehmetullah, the company was born from the realization that the payments space lacked technological advancement and transparent pricing, especially for small to medium-sized businesses. Suneera Madhani, a first-generation Pakistani American, drew from her experience growing up in an entrepreneurial family and working in the fintech sector to identify a market need for a more streamlined, omnichannel payment solution. Initially rejected by her superiors at a previous company, she launched the venture with her brother, building it from a startup into a company with a valuation of over $1 billion.

The company operates on a subscription-based model, which was a disruptive approach in an industry known for transaction-based fees. This model provides clients with predictable costs and access to a robust software platform. Stax serves a diverse client base, including small businesses, large enterprises, and software companies (ISVs), with a particular focus on professional services, field services, healthcare, and retail. The core of its business is an omnichannel platform that enables merchants to accept payments both in-person and digitally, consolidating all transaction data into a single, unified dashboard. This integration simplifies reporting and analytics for businesses with multiple locations, eliminating the need for manual data reconciliation.

The product, Stax Pay, provides comprehensive payment processing, while Stax Connect offers an API for software platforms to embed payment functionalities, creating new revenue streams for them. Over the years, Stax has pursued an aggressive growth strategy, marked by the official rebrand from Fattmerchant to Stax in 2021 and a series of strategic acquisitions. These acquisitions, including CardX, Fusebill, Payment Depot, Atlantic-Pacific Processing Systems (APPS), and BlockChyp, have significantly expanded Stax's technological capabilities, adding features like a payment gateway, recurring billing, and enhanced processing infrastructure. This has allowed the company to evolve into an end-to-end payment technology provider, processing over $30 billion annually for more than 30,000 businesses across the U.S. and Canada.

Keywords: payment processing, fintech, Suneera Madhani, Sal Rehmetullah, subscription-based payments, omnichannel payments, integrated payments, Stax Connect, API, merchant services, payment gateway, SMB payments, enterprise payments, SaaS billing, recurring revenue, payment technology, Fattmerchant, healthcare payments, retail payments, professional services payments