Two years after top KC startup’s sale, Zego (and its new owner) acquired for nearly $1B
June 18, 2021 | Startland News Staff
The company that acquired Kansas City-based Zego in 2019 — and liked the real estate tech startup’s brand so much it changed its own identity to match — has itself now been purchased by a global “powerhouse” in an all-cash transaction valued at $925 million.
Zego delivers its full value stack through a cloud native SaaS platform to enable seamless property management and best-in-class resident engagement and commerce experiences.
The company has significant scale with over 7,000 property management customers representing more than 11 million residential units in the United States utilizing its comprehensive real estate technology platform.
Through its integrated payments offering, Zego facilitates approximately $30 billion in payments annually in a market with a volume opportunity that exceeds $1 trillion.
Zego — formerly PayLease — announced the acquisition by Global Payments, a leading worldwide provider of payment technology and software solutions, June 10. (The 18-year-old San Diego company had rebranded to “Zego” about nine months after absorbing the exiting Kansas City startup, which was originally built in Kansas City by co-founders Adam Blake and Clay Coffman as a solution in the smart apartment space.)
“Today marks a monumental moment in Zego (Powered by PayLease) history as we embark on our next exciting chapter,” Zego representatives said in a press release after this month’s acquisition. “This transaction extends Global Payments’ leadership in software into the real estate vertical.”
Global Payments is headquartered in Georgia with nearly 24,000 employees worldwide.
The deal is not expected to disrupt services for current customers or residents, the company said, noting it pushes Zego closer to international expansion.
As a co-founder, Blake shifted into an advisor role with PayLease until December 2019 before taking time off to spend with his family and serve a handful of early stage companies in advisory roles.
Coffman served as director of product management for Zego (Powered by PayLease) until July 2020, moving into an advisor position with the company until December 2020.
“I think we did a good job showing outside investors there are venture-backable companies in KC,” Blake told Startland News in 2019. “We had a handful that invested in Kansas City for the first time.”
An inaugural Techstars Kansas City graduate founded as “CasaiQ,” the Kansas City-built Zego’s early investors ran the spectrum of the local and national investment scene: The KCRise Fund, Techstars Ventures, Zoloz CEO Toby Rush, and ShotTracker co-founder Davyeon Ross.
Featured Business
2021 Startups to Watch
stats here
Related Posts on Startland News
New scholarship opportunities for urban entrepreneurs available in August
The Urban Business Growth Initiative announced it released new scholarship opportunities for urban entrepreneurs in Kansas City beginning in August. Launched in 2013, the initiative offers a variety of programs that fuel urban business growth — whether that be counseling, classes or access to resources. The UBGI helped 92 scholarship award-winners generate $29.5 million in…
In an oversubscribed round, PopBookings raises $1M
Quickly expanding around the nation, the event staffing tech firm PopBookings recently raised a significant round that will push the technology into international markets. Led by CEO Erika Klotz and COO Scott Hanson, the Kansas City-based tech firm recently raised more than $1 million in an oversubscribed round that includes the Missouri Technology Corporation, iSelect…
Sprint Accelerator alum and AI firm Centiment to begin KU Med partnership
New York-based artificial intelligence firm Centiment recently announced that the firm has established a research partnership with the University of Kansas School of Medicine. The neuroscience study will focus on two areas of the brain — the limbic system and the prefrontal cortex — and will scan the brains of people while they consume content, looking for…
Report: Missouri is a top 10 state to launch a business
A recent study dubbed Missouri as one of the top 10 states to start a business. The report was assembled by personal finance website WalletHub and aimed to determine which region held the most fertile grounds for launching an enterprise. Evaluating all 50 states’ business environments, access to resources and business costs, the report ranked…