NUVEI

Philip Fayer founded Nuvei — originally called Pivotal Payments — in Montreal in 2003. He had grown up in the payments industry and saw a gap: large processors like Visa and Mastercard's acquiring partners were terrible at serving high-risk or specialized merchants — gaming sites, subscription businesses, and international sellers who needed multi-currency and alternative payment methods.

Fayer built Nuvei specifically for those clients. The company grew slowly and profitably through the 2000s and early 2010s, largely below the radar.

Private equity firm Novacap invested in 2017, which gave Nuvei the capital to accelerate its M&A strategy. Between 2017 and 2020, Nuvei made several acquisitions in Europe and North America.

By the time of the 2020 IPO, it had processed $31 billion in total transaction volume.

Nuvei charges merchants a percentage of each transaction plus a per-transaction fee — standard payment processing economics. The differentiation is in the complexity it handles.

It supports over 600 payment methods and 150 currencies, which most processors do not. It specializes in sectors like online gaming and sports betting, regulated iGaming, cryptocurrency exchanges, and global e-commerce.

High-risk merchants pay premium rates because most processors refuse to serve them, which improves Nuvei's margin profile. It also offers acquiring, gateway, and risk management as bundled services.

Nuvei Gateway — the core payment processing infrastructure connecting merchants to acquiring banks and card networks globally. Nuvei Acquiring — direct acquiring licenses in key markets, meaning Nuvei can settle transactions without a third-party bank.

Simplex — a fiat-to-crypto on-ramp product acquired in 2021, embedded in dozens of crypto exchanges. Nuvei for Gaming — a specialized stack for iGaming and sports betting operators, covering regulatory compliance, age verification, and alternative payment methods.

Pay by Bank — an open banking payment method that bypasses card networks entirely.

Nuvei grew through two parallel tracks. The first was organic — winning high-margin clients in gaming and crypto that competitors avoided.

The second was acquisitions. Between 2017 and 2022, Nuvei acquired Smart2Pay (European payments), SafeCharge (gaming-focused payments), Base Commerce (ACH processing), and Simplex (crypto on-ramps).

Each acquisition added new geographies, payment methods, or regulated market access. Post-IPO, the company accelerated into the U.S.

market, particularly in iGaming as sports betting legalization spread state by state. The growth of legal online gambling in the U.S.

was effectively a tailwind Nuvei had positioned itself for years in advance.

In November 2021, short-seller Spruce Point Capital published a report accusing Nuvei of inflating transaction volumes, mischaracterizing acquisition accounting, and other irregularities. The stock fell 40% in days.

Nuvei denied the allegations, and the company never faced regulatory action. But the controversy damaged its public market reputation and made the IPO gains look more fragile.

Meanwhile, competition intensified from Adyen, Stripe, and Checkout.com in the European and cross-border markets Nuvei depended on. The 2022 tech selloff compounded the pressure, and Nuvei's stock never fully recovered its IPO peak before the take-private deal.

Novacap (lead investor, 2017 growth round). CDPQ (Quebec pension fund, IPO anchor investor).

Advent International (take-private acquirer, 2024). Public market investors via TSX and NASDAQ listing from 2020 to 2024.