Paya Holdings Inc.

Good morning, ladies and gentlemen, and welcome to the Paya Holdings, Inc. fourth quarter and full year 2021 earnings conference call. At this time, all participants are in a listen-only mode. If anyone should require operator assistance, please press star then zero on your telephone. A question and answer session will follow the formal presentation. As a reminder, this conference call is being recorded. I would now like to turn the conference over to Mr. Matt Humphreys, Head of Investor Relations at Paya, you may begin.

Good morning, and welcome to the Paya fourth quarter and full year 2021 earnings conference call. Before we begin, let me remind everyone that today's discussion will contain forward-looking statements based on our current assumptions, expectations, and beliefs, including financial guidance, the growth of Paya's business, our objectives and business strategies, as well as other forward-looking statements. Please refer to the disclosure at the end of the company's earnings press release and form AK filed with the SEC today for information about forward-looking statements that will be made or discussed on this call. All statements made today reflect our current expectations only, and we undertake no obligation to update any statements to reflect the events that will occur after this call. You can learn more about the specific risk factors that could cause our actual results to differ materially from today's discussion in the risk factor section of the company's 10-K, which we expect to file with the SEC in March 2022, and in additional periodic reports that the company files with the SEC. Also during this call, we will discuss certain non-GAAP measures of our performance. GAAP to non-GAAP financial reconciliations and supplemental financial information are provided in the earnings press release and the Form 8-K filed with the SEC. This call is also available via webcast. You can find all the information I have just described on the investor relations section of PIA's website, including a supplemental fourth quarter 2021 earnings presentation. Now joining us on the call today are PIA's Chief Executive Officer, Jeff Hack, and Chief Financial Officer, Glenn Renzulli. Following their remarks, we will open the call to your questions. With that, let me turn the call over to Jeff.

Thank you, Matt, and good morning, everyone. Thanks for joining us today as we review PIA's fourth quarter and full year 2021 financial results and expand upon some exciting recent announcements that accompany our strong financial results. At the conclusion of my remarks, Glenn will provide further details on PIA's financial performance as well as our 2022 financial guidance. PIA reported strong financial results in the fourth quarter, led by our integrated solutions and ACH businesses. The continued strong pace of the secular shift in buyer behavior to software-led commerce solutions, coupled with the ongoing digital transformation occurring across middle market businesses, provides an excellent environment for Paya to continue to capitalize on these opportunities via our existing products and solutions combined with our innovation roadmap. Specifically, in the fourth quarter, Paya's payment volume grew 27% to nearly $12 billion, driven by card volume growth of 16% and ACH volume growth of 46%. Total revenue grew 24% to a record 67 million, led by integrated solutions with continued strength in our ACH offerings. Gross profit grew 27% to 35 million, and adjusted EBITDA grew 18% to 17.3 million. Compared to the same period in 2019, total revenue growth was 31%, and adjusted EBITDA grew 38%. Our 2021 full-year results were equally strong, with volume growth of 29% to a record $43 billion, total revenue growth of 21% to $249 million, and adjusted EBITDA growth of 23%. These accomplishments reinforce our enthusiasm to continue to deliver superior financial results over time through the disciplined execution of our strategy and capital allocation decisions. Simply said, we continue to execute on a thoughtful combination of three strategic levers. First, internal investments in organic growth. Second, strategic partnerships. And third, acquisitions. Importantly, we pursue all three levers enthusiastically, and the relative weight of these three levers will continue to be dynamic based upon where we achieve the greatest impact. I will now cover recent progress on each of these growth levers. Our organic focus is on ensuring we have the right people and right solutions in place while continuing to deliver profitable growth. As such, we're accelerating our innovation roadmap through new tools, features, and functionality, especially within our B2B and government verticals. to meet the ever-growing needs of our partners and clients while extending our competitive positioning. The acceleration and expansion of our go-to-market strategy is also a priority, which enables us to drive further penetration while attracting new partners. The opportunity to further penetrate existing clients while also winning new ones has never looked more promising, and we will pursue this growth lever aggressively, ensuring our teams have all the resources they need to win. Importantly, the continued ability to attract exceptional talent to PIA further reinforces our confidence and enthusiasm. PIA's pipeline of actionable opportunities continues to grow, and we've seen some great new wins. Specifically, in the fourth quarter, in our government vertical, we signed one of the largest water infrastructure service providers in the country, where we will serve as the primary commerce engine to their 4 million customers spread across 19 states. Another example is a new ISV partnership with a leading software provider in the not-for-profit and government verticals. Our ability as a single solution provider offering omnichannel and payment agnostic solutions across multiple verticals were key to our success in finding this partner. Their needs closely paralleled our strategy of delivering vertically tailored, customer-centric, integrated payment solutions to partners across the middle market. And finally, in our ACH business, we continue to see success signing new partners who are looking for additional payment capabilities, particularly for larger ticket transactions, and in cross-selling into our existing base of customers. We're excited about the continued opportunities we see for our ACH business going forward, and we'll pursue these enthusiastically. As Paya grows organically, as well as through the integration of great businesses we have acquired, We continuously refine our overall brand positioning and strategy, our solution footprint, and of course, the customer experience. As such, we recently announced that in our government vertical, we have consolidated our existing government capabilities, our domain experts, and our first billing and payment group brands into a single unified experience called Pyagov. Through the end of 2021, Our government business served over 2,000 government agencies and municipalities across 24 states while processing over 8 million payments per year. As part of this strategic alignment, we are able to pursue the government opportunity with a much more targeted and efficient strategy, strengthening our capability to capture a strong share of the growth we see here. Paya focuses heavily on continuing to extend our value-added solutions in support of our existing partners and clients by understanding both current and future needs. As part of these efforts, we recently announced a new business partnership with Transcard, a global leader in payment technology solutions for financial institutions, fintechs, and businesses. This new partnership substantially expands our B2B commerce solution suite offering a fully integrated accounts payable module and supplier network delivered through a single API and a single portal to customers. Coupled with Paya's existing accounts receivable solutions, this new partnership allows Paya to become, in effect, a one-stop shop with a fully integrated AR and AP offering. This partnership serves to strengthen our value proposition while further enabling our customers to succeed and unlock their growth potential. And finally, on M&A, we're focused on a range of inorganic opportunities that complement PIA's organic growth. We remain optimistic on opportunities to layer in inorganic growth and want to remind you that we remain disciplined buyers, ensuring that acquisitions meet our strategic and financial criteria. Our recent acquisition of Velocity is an example of this, where we acquired a strategic capability which extended our competitive positioning. Specifically, Velocity provides fully integrated omni-channel payment solutions to accounting and ERP partners, including Acumetica and Sage. The acquisition brings market-leading and proprietary technology, exceptional talent, and strong integration experience and expertise, allowing us to further enrich the value proposition of our ERP offerings within the B2B market. Pi's ability to execute strategic M&A combined with the opportunities we see to invest organically and a very strong balance sheet and cash flow generation has underpinned our decision-making for 2022. Where appropriate, this means accelerating key product innovation and expanding our go-to-market strategy at a very attractive ROI with incremental capital instead of purchasing a capability for multiples of that. These growth initiatives, combined with the ability to partner with market leaders, gives us both the confidence and flexibility to advance our growth agenda while consistently delivering profitable growth. With that, I'll turn it over to Glenn to walk you through the financials in a bit more detail. Glenn?

Thanks, Jeff, and good morning, everyone. As Jeff mentioned earlier, we had a strong fourth quarter to close out 2021. Our integrated solutions and ACH offerings continue to be the lead drivers of our growth, and we expect this trend to continue into 2022 and beyond. Total payment volume in the fourth quarter was $11.7 billion, an increase of 27% year-over-year, which brings our full-year volume to nearly $43 billion, up 29% versus 2020. In the quarter, card volume grew 16%, ACH volume grew 46%, with ACH transactions up 22%. Our B2B and not-for-profit verticals were the larger drivers of volume growth this quarter. For the fourth quarter, total revenue was 67.1 million, an increase of 24% versus last year. Integrated solutions revenue was 43.1 million, up 33%, led by the strength in our B2B and not-for-profit verticals. Payment services revenue was 24 million, up 11% year-over-year, with ACH revenue growing 21%. For the full year, total revenue was up 21% to $249.4 million. Integrated solutions revenue grew 27% to $155.2 million, and payment services revenue grew 13% to $94.2 million. In the fourth quarter, integrated solutions revenue as a percentage of total revenue stood at 64% and ACH at 14%. Taken together, these higher growth businesses represent nearly 80% of total revenue, And considering Jeff's earlier comments about market trends, we expect this to increase over the coming years. Gross profit in the fourth quarter was $34.7 million, up 27% year-over-year, with gross margin of 51.7%, expanding 130 basis points from the prior year. Integrated Solutions gross profit of $22.2 million was up 28%, with a 51.5% gross margin, Payment services gross profit was 12.5 million, up 25% with a 52% gross margin. For the full year, gross profit was 130.1 million, up 25%, with gross margin of 52.2%, up 180 basis points versus last year. Integrated solutions gross profit was up 25% to 81.7 million, with a 52.6% gross margin, and payment services gross profit of 48.4 million, was up 25% with a gross margin of 51.4%. We saw some modest decline in gross margin in integrated solutions for full year 2021, primarily due to our acquisition of Paragon. In payment services, we continue to see gross margin expansion led by the growth in our ACH business, which is running near 60% gross margins. Adjusted operating expenses were $17.4 million for the fourth quarter and $64.9 million for the full year. both higher versus prior year as we layered in our Paragon acquisition along with incremental public company costs. Adjusted EBITDA in the quarter was $17.3 million, up 18% versus the prior year. For the full year, adjusted EBITDA was $65.2 million, up 23%, and adjusted EBITDA margin was up 40 basis points to 26.1%. We've talked previously about the acceleration of certain targeted investments into the business to drive further growth. In the corridor, we pulled forward some of these initiatives, given the performance of the business, as well as opportunities we see in front of us in key markets to extend our competitive positioning and to broaden our capabilities. As Jeff mentioned, we are continuing to do so in 2022 as we accelerate investment into our go-to-market strategy to further elevate our brand while increasing engagement across both our existing and potential new partners. We are also scaling our innovation efforts internally with additional product and technology spend as we seek to expand and enhance our market-leading commerce solutions. GAAP net income for the quarter was $2 million versus net loss of $2.1 million in the prior year. Earnings per share was $0.02 in the quarter. Adjusted net income for the quarter was $11.9 million with adjusted EPS of $0.09. For the full year, we reported a GAAP net loss of 3.1 million and adjusted net income of 40.3 million. GAAP loss per share was two cents and adjusted EPS was 32 cents for the year. Net cash provided by operating activities for the full year was 37 million. Our share count at the end of the fourth quarter was 132.1 million diluted shares outstanding. Inclusive of approximately 5.7 million earn out shares, that have not yet met issuance thresholds. You can reference an illustrative walkthrough of our share count in our earnings presentation. Regarding our balance sheet, at the end of the year, we had $147 million in cash and $249 million of gross debt, with a net leverage ratio slightly below 1.6 times. Subsequent to the end of the fourth quarter, we paid $6 million in cash for the acquisition of Velocity, funded from the balance sheet. Now let's turn to our full year 2022 guidance. As a reminder, these targets exclude any incremental M&A we may execute for the balance of 2022 and only include acquisitions we have previously announced and closed. For 2022, we are targeting total revenue in a range of $275 million to $283 million, representing year-over-year growth of 10.3% to 13.5%. Our gross margin expectations are 51.5% to 52%, And finally, our adjusted EBITDA targets are in a range of $72 million to $74 million. As discussed for 2022, we are planning on investing incremental capital towards certain strategic product and tech investments, while allocating more dollars to Paya's go-to-market efforts. These investments are the primary driver of our adjusted EBITDA expectations for 2022 and represent approximately $4 million of incremental and discretionary operating expenses. We're also expecting a slight EBITDA headwind from the acquisition of Velocity for the full year 2022 as we integrate and optimize the business for proper long-term success. Over the past few years, we've consistently been able to accelerate our top-line growth while also expanding margin by 100 to 200 basis points per year. Given this track record and the opportunities in front of us, we felt it was a responsible decision to sacrifice a point of margin growth in the near term to accelerate our organic initiatives and enhance our growth trajectory over the medium term. That concludes my prepared remarks this morning. I'll turn the call back over to Jeff to close out the call. Jeff?

Thank you, Glenn. We are very proud of both the financial and non-financial performance in our first year as a public company. This was a result of the tremendous efforts of our talented employees and the dedication from our partners. The combination of organic initiatives strategic partnerships, and acquisitions all contribute to accelerating our growth. The investments we are making today build upon what we've accomplished so far and underpin our tremendous enthusiasm to continue to take Paya to even greater heights. With that, operator, we're ready to take questions.

Thank you. As a reminder, to ask a question, you will need to press star 1 on your touchtone telephone. Again, that's star 1. on your touchtone telephone to ask a question. To withdraw your question, press the pound key. Please stand by while we compile the Q&A roster. Our first question comes from the line of Bob Napoli of William Blair. Your line is open. Good morning.

Jeff and Glenn, nice job on the quarter and on the year. I guess just on the outlook, just to dig a little deeper into some of the comments that you guys made on the accelerating go-to-market and investing more in the innovation roadmap, what exactly are you doing on both of those fronts and what are you doing on go-to-market Are you doing something different on go-to-market? And some color on the innovation roadmap would be really helpful. Hey, good morning, Bob.

It's Jeff. Thanks for the question. So two parts to that. Different, no. Accelerated, yes. So, you know, think of it this way. There's three component parts. One is accelerating portions of the product and tech roadmap. which is not a new set of initiatives, but simply having the horsepower to speed some of that important work up. The second is on go-to-market and sales, and in particular, additional what we call technical sales support. So we like our hunter and farmer setup, but adding more technical support to those teams improves success and also speed to revenue. And then third is marketing. And as we continue to work on improved strong ROI initiatives, we see the opportunities to dial that up modestly as well.

Okay. Thank you. And then I guess on maybe some color on how business trended through the quarter and into January, February. And as we think about 2022, I mean, your payment volume was up 27%. In the fourth quarter, I know you had some tougher comps with ACH coming earlier this year in 2022. So just any color through the quarter. And then if you could also relative to the take rate, I think your revenue retention was actually up on the year. Is there anything different you would view on the take rate? I think it was 57 basis points of the revenue yield versus 59 a year ago. Hey, Bob. This is Glenn. Thanks for the question. Thank you.

Yep. Yeah, no, good questions. Yeah, as far as the quarter, so the volume trends, I'll take that one first and then speak a little bit on take rate and retention. For the quarter, yeah, we saw a little bit of acceleration as we ended Q4. So, you know, that's really the reason we came in a little higher on the revenue side. We saw a good finish to the quarter. So we were excited about that. And, yeah, we've seen good follow-through, right? I mean, we never like to call a quarter short. Too early, right? We've got another month left. But, you know, we haven't seen any negative trends, let's put it that way, in the first two months of the year. So that's been positive to see. But, yeah, well, you know, obviously a lot of macro items going on at the moment. So we're monitoring that and want to make sure we're not getting ahead of ourselves from a guidance perspective either. And then for the question around retention and yield, Yeah, look, we continue to see pricing power on the card side. So even though our headline yield is down on a year-over-year basis right in Q4, it's down one point less, right? So our first point would be that that distortion from ACH is lessening, and you're going to see less of an impact in 2022 here. So the card strength will stick out a little bit more as you look into 2022 as far as yield and pricing, and we were up sequentially on card yield and up on a year-over-year basis as well. And then from a retention standpoint, yeah, we saw a great year on retention, both on the volume side, and you see it in kind of our 100% net volume retention. It was actually above that this year in 2021, so we're given the approximate 100%, but we outperformed that number. this year on a volume basis. And then with pricing and pricing pound to card side, we saw a net lift from a net revenue retention perspective. So really, you know, good year in that regard. And, you know, look, we could hope, you know, to see that continue this year. I think we have all the reason to believe it will from both the pricing and from a retention standpoint. So.

Thank you. Our next question comes from Chris Zhang of Credit Suisse. Your line is open.

Good morning, Jeff and Glenn. This is Chris Zhang for Tim Trouto from Credit Suisse. I have a question about the longer-term top line and EBITDA growth outlook, and especially in the context of the 2022 guide. I understand there's some new investment, especially in the near-term, impacting the 2022 margin, but are you guys talking about maybe the return to the longer-term outlook and particularly the 20% plus EBITDA growth longer-term, and then I have a minor follow-up.

Great. Thanks, Chris. This is Jeff. So to the first part of your question, we are not changing our medium-term objectives. If you look at the performance of the business over the prior periods, you will see that many of those periods are, in fact, ahead. of the medium term objectives. And as we have consistently said all along, it's not a straight line from any given point in time to the medium term objective. And and so we feel very good about the decisions we are making in 2022 to ensure that we can meet and then hopefully potentially exceed those medium term objectives over time.

All right. I appreciate it. I appreciate it. And I think Um, in terms of the recent announcement of the, um, AP solutions, it's definitely a very exciting development this step, uh, and will be viewed as a time expansive opportunity. Um, how would you factor that into the longer term outlook or maybe, um, your medium term outlook? Thank you. Yeah.

So, uh, so let me take that in two parts. You know, first of all, we are very excited about this partnership. We were very thoughtful. about how we wanted to combine Paia's AR capabilities with industry-leading AP capabilities, and very pleased with the partner that we have done that with. In terms of speed and overall trajectory, simply too soon to know, but we see it as significant, exciting, and very relevant. And the initial, and this is just the initial, introduction is you all are familiar with our strong roster of ERP partners in our installed base, many of whom want or need the AP capabilities as well. And they are far more attractive on a bundled basis than a la carte. So very pleased and excited, but too early to add color as to how much of our growth from here it'll drive.

It's very helpful. Thank you very much, Jeff. Word of color.

Thank you. Our next question comes from John Davis of Raymond James. Please go ahead.

Thanks. Good morning, guys. Jeff and Glenn, I really want to focus for a minute on free cash flow and the balance sheet. You guys have an extremely healthy balance sheet, to say the least. I just want to talk a little bit about capital allocation. Jeff, I hear you on the organic investments that you're making, but maybe you could comment on the M&A environment and then what the plan is to do as you just continue to accumulate cash. I think stock buybacks, given the liquidity here, are tough. So just maybe thoughts on what to do with the cash flow here and thoughts on the current M&A environment.

Great, thanks. Great question. This is Jeff again. I'll start and then Glenn can pick it up. So first of all, we are very pleased to continue to have a very strong balance sheet. Thank you for pointing that out. Our capital allocation priorities have not changed from the first time we started talking with all of you, you know, over a year and a half ago. So we will continue to invest in the organic growth of the business wherever we see high ROI opportunities. We complement that with the M&A agenda. I think you asked about the M&A pipeline, and I would say two things. One, we continue to work a range of opportunities, early, middle, and late stage in varying sizes. We are disciplined buyers. I know that folks, you know, often ask about that. But we believe that we will see very, continue to see attractive and accretive ways of to deploy the capital that we naturally generate in the business. And in that regard, we don't see that changing anytime soon. Glenn, anything to add?

Sure, yeah, this is Glenn. Yeah, obviously, good free cash flow for the year, right? Operating cash flow, $37 million. That should continue to grow as we look forward, right? It's a really good part about our business, right? We can translate the profitability down to cash. We're into the year on $150 million of cash in the balance sheet. and below one-sixth on the leverage ratio, net leverage ratio. So it really puts us in a strong position to go deploy some of that capital where we see opportunity, right? So, you know, obviously the market's seen a pullback. You know, private markets are always a little bit delayed in that, but we hope to see some, you know, value come here this year in 22, and we'll be aggressive deploying that where we see those opportunities. And then obviously, yeah, with the The share price, we think, in a depressed area, right, we'll always, you know, look at that as well and see if there's any need to do something about that with our cash as well. But at this point in time, you know, we're really focused on running the business organically and then, you know, looking for M&A opportunities. And I think we're in a very good position to go deploy that capital when we see a good opportunity.

Okay. I mean, not trying to pin you down, but is it fair to say that if the value up with the public markets, we could expect you to be more active this year than you have been since you completed the D-SPAC process.

Yeah, look, I mean, you can never – oh, go ahead, Jeff.

Sorry. I was going to say that would certainly be our objective, but as you know, we don't dictate the market conditions, and we continue to work opportunities very enthusiastically. Okay. but that's about as far as, you know, I think we could say. Glenn, sorry, I cut you off.

No, exactly right. And, look, I think, you know, the discipline treated us okay this year, and hopefully, yeah, we want to go deploy that capital, right, but we're going to continue to be disciplined and make sure we use it for the right opportunities. But, you know, we're hopeful, and we have a good funnel of opportunities out there that we continue to work, and we'll continue down that path.

Okay. Great. Thanks. And then just want to quickly hit on the EBITDA margin, you know, call it flattish this year. Maybe talk through, you know, historically, you know, I know your midterm guide is not a point in time, one year to the next, but just help us think about the incremental investments this year. And, you know, generally speaking, you have operating leverage of, you know, 50 plus basis points a year on the EBITDA line, sometimes even closer to 100. And so just, you know, is that the right way to think about the investments this year or call it 50 to 100 basis points of margin? Just trying to think about the longer-term algo here, recognizing you're investing a little bit more in 22.

Yeah. Let me start and tell you how – sorry. Let me start with how we think about it, and then Glenn can come in and augment that. So, you know, first of all, we don't start with a margin objective, and we've said that to you all before. you know, from the get go. So we start with what are the right investments to drive maximum profitable growth in the business? And the margin at any given point in time is a byproduct of those decisions. You know, as you pointed out, if you look back at this company over the past handful of years, you see often 100 or even higher percent growth in margin. year on year, sometimes as much as 200 basis points, which is great. But, you know, we manage this company for maximum profitable growth in the medium term. And therefore, to have flat margins for one year per the guidance to us is a fine result of the business decisions that produce that outcome. I think implied in your question is the persistence of those investments. And I would say two things. One is the better they perform, the more enthusiastic we will be, you know, and vice versa, of course. But to your broader question, we continue to feel very good about the continued margin expansion of this business as a byproduct of the top-line growth rates we achieve and the investments we make in the business.

Okay. I appreciate the color. Thanks, guys.

Thank you. Our next question comes from Peter Heckman of Davidson. Your question, please.

Good morning, gentlemen. Just a couple questions on the fourth quarter and the outlook. In the quarter itself, were acquisitions contributing somewhere around $3 million in revenue?

Yes, I'll just hit it on the organic growth side. So our organic growth side, for the quarter was up 17%. So, you know, year over year for Q4, up 17%. Got it.

Great, great. And then just thinking about Velocity, you know, it looks like a relatively small deal, but maybe $3 million in annual revenue there?

Yeah, not even. No good question. And it's sub $2 million at this point. So, you know, minimal inorganic contribution this year. We're very excited about the transaction and the potential and the technology it gives us, though. So, you know, we think it's going to really lift off pretty quickly, but, you know, size-wise, pretty small contribution this year, you know, sub $2 million. And then also, you know, tied to the profitability side, this isn't the lead driver, but it also, you know, has a little bit of a headwind on the bottom line as well.

Right, right. Okay. And then just as you're lapping that big ACH win from fourth quarter of 2020, how do you think about that outlook? Do you still think ACH will grow faster than the corporate average?

Yeah, good question. So ACH is still a great grower for us. You know, obviously we had the outsized growth this year driven by the deal, that larger deal, but we'll still continue to see good growth there. You know, we look at it as a, a low double digits grower, right? So it should settle in somewhere around there moving forward. And, you know, we have a lot of good opportunities there. And even with the larger partner, we continue to see opportunity to have some additional incremental revenue with them as well. So, you know, still will be a great story for us and a good driver of the performance in 2022. Good deal. Thank you.

Thank you. Our next question comes from David Toged of Evercore ISI. Your line is open. David, please make sure your line is muted. And if you have a speakerphone, lift your handset. We'll go to the next question. It comes from Andrew Jeffrey of Truist. Your line is open.

Hey, this is Gus, stepping on for Andrew. Just wanted to talk a little bit more about the B2B side of things. Could you talk to us about the average transaction size? Is that moving up or down? And is there any call-outs in terms of vertical markets there?

Yeah, happy to take that. This is Glenn. On the average transaction side, yeah, we saw a good year for average ticket growth, obviously tied to the inflationary environment that's out there, so good growth. think organically for our customers, but then, you know, the inflationary component does have a positive impact on us. Um, so, uh, average ticket was up both on card and ACH for the year and overall, obviously. Um, and then, yeah, from a vertical perspective, um, B2B continues to be, um, you know, strong and performing, you know, even into 2022 here, uh, early part of the year. And we continue to see that as a, you know, the large, one of the larger areas of growth for us. Um, And then, yeah, I mean, not-for-profit had a good quarter as well, government as well, but just not as outsized as previous quarters, kind of settling in at a more normalized growth rate now. And, yeah, within the vertical, I would say, you know, B2B, we're seeing good strength still in the construction, industrial supply side, and some of those hard good markets that continue to perform well.

Great. Thank you. Thank you. Our next question comes from Mike Grondahl of Northland Securities. Your line is open.

Yeah, thanks, guys. Just thinking about, you know, the accelerated investment in your go-to-market strategy, can you kind of highlight the size of your sales today? It sounds like you'll add some technical sales or technical support this year. And maybe... How much bigger do you think it will be at year end in terms of people or percent?

Yeah, this is a great question. This is Jeff. So this is not, you know, step function change. We like the size and shape of our sales force. And just as a reminder, hunters who hunt new partnerships, farmers who work on penetrating the install-based industry, of clients, we are always selectively adding in support of the opportunities we see, and in particular, stepped-up marketing efforts often produce increased at-bats. So, obviously, you want to make sure you've got the folks in place to fill those opportunities. But the biggest addition is really around the technical sales and solutions folks who support the hunters and farmers. And important reminder for folks, we are talking about sophisticated middle market businesses in the verticals you know that we play in. And so while the integrations themselves are relatively turnkey, the partners want a technology partner to help them understand how to make the end-to-end experience terrific. So that's really where the investment comes in. It is an augmentation. It is not a significant change in our approach or the shape or size, for that matter.

Gotcha. And then just secondly, in the EBITDA kind of reconciliation, there's a little bit of restructuring costs. Does that relate to streamlining the government utilities business vertical that you talked about, or is that something else?

No, actually, Mike, the main dollars there were some of the new executives that came in in the latter part of 21. So there was, you know, some recruiting fees and things tied to onboarding, and then there was one offboarding as well.

Got it. Okay. Thanks, guys.

Thank you. Our next question comes from James Fawcett of Morgan Stanley. Your line is open.

Thank you very much. Appreciate all your comments this morning. I wanted to dig in really quickly on a little bit more on the M&A, particularly vis-a-vis your own stock, like how you're trying to prioritize that. And then, you know, if you could give a little more color on the types of acquisition targets you're looking at, whether it be their exposures, growth rates, and how we should think about, at least generically, you expect those to contribute to the medium and long-term EBITDA growth targets, et cetera, that you have.

Good morning, James. It's Jeff again. Thanks. Great questions. So let me take that in parts. So first of all, what do we look for? That criteria has not changed. Anything that allows us to double down in our existing verticals, as you all know there are many sub-verticals underneath, is always first and foremost. Adjacent verticals is a very exciting place for us and a place where we're spending a lot of time. And in terms of what we're looking for there, obviously proprietary technology capabilities when applicable, and Velocity is a perfect example of that. as well as extensions of our go-to-market in terms of the penetration of the end markets. The other part of your question had to do with how you pay for acquisitions. And I would remind folks, we are in a very healthy cash position, relatively low leverage. So, first and foremost, obviously, cash for acquisitions makes sense. And the key callout on equity is, Generally speaking, and, you know, never say anything as an absolute, but generally speaking, equity for us is used around structuring a transaction, not for financing purposes, for alignment of objectives. Very often that can be captured in earn-out provisions and the joint alignment of incentives, as opposed to looking at the stock price at any given point in time and using that as the calculus. Obviously, we do that as well. but much more for alignment. So we feel very good about where we're looking, doing lots of interesting work on a bunch of fronts, and the ability to pay for it. And sorry, James, the other part of your question had to do with growth rates, I think. And what I would observe there is is we have done acquisitions of companies that grow faster than Paya as a whole, and we have done acquisitions of businesses that do not grow faster than Paya as a whole. It all comes back to the capabilities and the go-to-market assets of those businesses and that they will be worth more as part of Paya than not as part of Paya. So we are not in a vacuum simply buying higher growth rates. by paying big premiums to buy higher growth assets. So they need to meet their own strategic criteria on their own merits.

Thanks a lot.

Thank you. Our next question comes from Josh Siegler of Cantor Fitzgerald. Please go ahead. Hi. Good morning. Thanks for taking my question.

My first question is on ticket size. So, obviously, it trended up this year, but do you expect the average ticket size to continue to increase as we move into 2022? Hey, Josh, this is Glenn. Good question.

Yeah, look, I think we do think it will continue to increase, just maybe not at the same level we saw in 2021. So, yeah, still bullish on 2021. an average ticket going up, but I think, you know, we're just definitely careful about the macro environment and, you know, obviously good macro year in 21 that we want to just be careful that we're not, you know, just rolling forward all those expectations or, you know, rolling forward those results and what's going to happen in 2022. So we're being a little bit more tempered on the outlook tied to growth there.

Got it. That's helpful. And then on the outlook, what factors would have to occur during 2022 to push you towards the high end of your current garden?

Yeah, look, I think it could, you know, kind of the opposite of what I just said, right? I mean, I think if, you know, either or the, you know, macro growth is at a larger clip or inflation and or inflation is at a higher clip, you know, that or sustains right at a higher clip. I think those are things that could lead to outperformance. Obviously, On the organic revenue side, we continue to work large partnerships that, you know, can really move the needle if we can get those won and integrated quickly, right? You know, the timing of those is always the challenge, right, trying to layer those in within a year. But, you know, healthy pipeline of both deals we're trying to win and deals we're trying to implement. So, you know, we try to take a balanced approach there in our outlook. But obviously, you know, if you ever can move things up as far as implementing or, you you know, win deals a little quicker, that could certainly help as well. And then obviously, inorganically, we've talked a lot about M&A, so that's also obviously not in our guidance and can provide some upside.

Great. Thank you very much.

Thank you. Our next question comes from Joe Vasi of Canaccord Genuity. Your line is open.

Good morning. This is for Joe Vasi. Thanks for taking our questions. Jeff, you called out the ISV partnership in the not-for-profit and government vertical. Any additional color you can offer there? And more broadly, how do you feel about your pipeline in 2020 versus 2021 at this time of the year? Yeah, great.

No, thank you. It's Jeff. Both are great questions. Not a lot to add on the new partnership other than the fact that large successful ISVs in those verticals continue to demonstrate their desire for partners like PIA who bring them the deep technical expertise and the sales support and the marketing support and so on and so on. So these are not commodity payments processing deals. and obviously we love those end markets and very proud of the win. As it relates to the pipeline, the pipeline continues to broaden in most, if not all, areas, and that is a byproduct of focus, of increased marketing talent and investment, and those are the kinds of investments that, as you know, are pay off over time. So, you know, so long as those kinds of efforts continue to meet our return thresholds, you should expect us to continue to drive them enthusiastically.

Great. And a question for you, Glenn. Any comments on the cadence of the investments that you'll be making in 2022? Good question.

Look, I think from like an OpEx perspective and cost perspective, they get layered in pretty quickly. So, you know, you will see a jump up in expenses here in Q1 2022. So, you know, there's a little bit of build in the year, but for the most part, most of those expenses get layered in pretty early. Thank you.

Again, to ask a question, please press Star 1 on your touchtone telephone. Again, that's star 1 on your touchtone telephone. We have a follow-up question from Bob Napoli of William Blair. Your line is open. Thank you.

Just wanted to follow up on the Velocity acquisition. I mean, very small acquisition, but you seem very excited about it, I guess. It's $7 million, AP automation. I mean, there's a lot of players in the AP industry, uh, space, you know, and $7 million doesn't seem like a lot of money for, you know, acquiring, uh, you know, the technology, you know, good tech stack, uh, in that business. So what, what gives you the, the excitement? And I think, uh, Glenn, you had talked about a quick lift off, which would, I guess would have to come from cross-selling. So, so what gives you the excitement on that acquisition? You know, that small amount for a player in a very large market with lots of competition.

Hey Bob, it's Jeff. Let me, I think, I think two of our items might've gotten confused in the comment. So let me just step back. So our AP initiative is a partnership with Transcard. Okay. And so that obviously provides immediate capabilities for the cross-sell as well as integrating the two offers throughout the course of the year. Velocity was an acquisition of a very strong team and IP capability in the ERP sector, particularly Acumatica and certain instances of Sage, which is a nice complement with Paya, of course. So Velocity is a great example of where a small company strategic transaction, particularly if you have compatible cultures, can be a big winner. So the Velocity team has developed very highly regarded capabilities in the Acumatica ecosystem, features and solutions that we admire and, by the way, would have built on our own. So in that regard, it's a great example of buy versus build and terrific folks and, in fact, One of the highest rated Acumatica ecosystem technologists, there are rankings around this stuff, you know, as part of that acquisition as well. So that's why we're excited. We agree with your point that when deals get particularly smaller, you need to be very clear on why you're excited. And suffice to say, we are very excited by Velocity and in particular the talent that came with that deal.

Thank you. And then maybe just to follow up, I guess, on the Transcard partnership and a little more color on exactly what you're doing with Transcard and what you think that, you know, the potential for that relationship.

Yeah. So, Bob, you know, I think I mentioned this on an earlier question on the call. The first step, as you would imagine, is our ability to immediately begin offering those capabilities to our existing immense install base. And over time, the intersection or integrations of features and functions to the extent they are important to these clients. I want to be consistent with all of you because we've been asked this question in prior periods. You know, AR is a world unto itself. AP is a world unto itself. There are obviously opportunities to connect the two for incremental value add. And that is something we intend to pursue. But the beginning point is the incredible deep installed base of partnerships we have. And remember, these are deep technical partnerships. And we are a trusted partner to these people. So to be able to introduce the integrated AP capabilities from our position is very exciting to us. And I think, as I mentioned earlier on the call, it's, you know, we don't ascribe individual projections to individual partnerships. We are very pleased, excited. We're off to a good start. And obviously it fits with the broader roadmap of broadening capabilities for our B2B end markets. Great.

Thank you. Appreciate it, Jeff.

Thanks, Bob.

Thank you. At this time, I'd like to turn the call back over to CEO Jeff Hack for closing remarks. Sir?

Great. Thank you very much. You know, thanks, everybody, for being on this morning. We know it's a busy week for many of you. Suffice to say, we are very proud of how we closed out our first full year as a public company. and we are just as excited, I would say much more excited, about what lies ahead for PIA, most importantly, as we continue to execute against a clear set of strategic priorities and also deliver and report to all of you in a very transparent manner. So hope you all have a great day. Thanks so much for dialing in.

And this concludes today's conference call. Thank you for participating. You may now disconnect.