American private equity (PE) firm Primus Capital has acquired a majority stake in Calgary’s Reach, which helps e-commerce and software-as-a-service (SaaS) companies sell globally.
Reach founder and CEO Sam Ranieri confirmed to BetaKit that the transaction was a majority recapitalization, but declined to share how much Primus invested in the FinTech startup or at what valuation.
“The right partner was necessary to really take this to the next level.”
Sam Ranieri, Reach
Ranieri has retained an equity stake in Reach, and the company’s 122-person team—including Ranieri and the rest of management—are staying on as part of the deal. The transaction, which saw Reach’s other investors bought out and its remaining debt cleared, closed yesterday. Going forward, Primus will be involved at the board level.
“It’s just not your kind of standard majority recap in that the buyer was very, very, very much invested in the management team and the crew and where we’re going and where we’re delivering,” Ranieri told BetaKit in an interview.
According to Primus’s website, the Ohio-based PE firm typically invests between $15 million and $70 million USD into technology businesses across Canada and the United States (US) with enterprise values of up to $250 million. Primus achieves this via buyouts, recapitalizations, and expansion financings.
Spun out of Calgary-based foreign exchange business Calforex in 2019, Reach describes itself as a “merchant of record” solution that helps mid-market and enterprise e-commerce retailers and SaaS businesses sell around the world more easily and effectively.
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Reach facilitates cross-border payments, fraud prevention, tax compliance, and localized customer experiences within the platforms its customers already use. Ranieri claimed the company attacks the market in “an embedded way” by “seamlessly” bolting on to merchants’ existing infrastructure, which he said has differentiated Reach from some of its competitors.
Reach secured $30 million CAD in equity and debt in its first round of outside capital in 2022. That financing was led by Vancouver-based private credit investor Vistara Growth with support from Canadian oil and gas entrepreneurs Doug Hunter (through Bluesky Equities) and Del Mondor (via Tribune Capital), as well as US venture capital firm Rising Tide.
As BetaKit previously reported, Reach laid off about 12 percent of its staff in November 2022 in light of “overall market conditions and [a] general correction in the tech space.” Ranieri noted at the time that Reach had felt the impact of the retail sector cooling.
Since then, Reach has sought to diversify its customer base, and expanded from e-commerce retailers to SaaS companies, after identifying a market for its services in that sector.
According to Ranieri, Reach made the most of its last fundraise. Those efforts culminated in the company growing its annual gross merchandise volume (GMV) 95 percent year-over-year in the fourth quarter of 2024. Ranieri declined to disclose Reach’s actual GMV, revenue, or how profitable the company is at this point.
“We maximized the last round, we became very self-sufficient, and we just basically hit a point in the company’s trajectory here where the right backer …. the right partner was necessary to really take this to the next level,” he said.
The CEO said Reach’s efficiency helped it close this deal in what remains “a tough market for FinTech.” Ranieri claimed Reach had “a few offers” on the table, but ultimately felt that Primus was the best fit given its team and experience and knowledge of the FinTech space.
In a statement, Primus managing director Ron Hess noted that the PE firm had built a relationship with Ranieri and the Reach team over the past few years, during which time he said Primus has “witnessed the return on investment realized by Reach’s customers.”
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“The company’s impressive growth is driven by its innovative approach to solving the pain points of global expansion for retail and digital businesses,” Hess added.
While Reach’s platform does not solve for the looming threat of tariffs, it will help merchant customers navigate the complexity and volatility associated with them, Ranieri said.
“Nobody wants a surprise bill at the door. Nobody wants their product caught at the border.”
Ranieri said US tariffs pose less of a risk to Reach given that it currently focuses more on helping US merchants sell abroad than the inverse, but acknowledged that if implemented, tariffs will increase the cost of goods going into the US. He noted retaliatory tariffs could have the same impact on the price Canadians and folks from other countries pay for US products.
Reach plays a role by ensuring the shopper understands what duty is going to cost by providing greater visibility at the point of sale through its tech, Ranieri said. “Nobody wants a surprise bill at the door. Nobody wants their product caught at the border because of a tariff.”
“The price is going to go up regardless; it’s just better to understand what that price is before you buy, because returns are a pain in the ass, caught at the border is a pain in the ass, chargebacks can go up—it’s an absolute shit show, to be honest with you,” Ranieri added.
Reach plans to use this funding from Primus to scale its operations, expand its international coverage, accelerate its product roadmap, and augment its existing payments, tax compliance, and fraud protection offerings as it looks to support more enterprise merchants. Today, Reach has full operations in markets including Canada, the US, the United Kingdom, and Australia, with plans to go live in Japan and the United Arab Emirates shortly.
Feature image courtesy Reach.