Hidden gems. One never knows when he or she may stumble upon such an asset. Paymode-X is one such example.

Tickers mentioned in this note and/or podcast: AAPL, AMZN, AXP, BAC, EPAY, FB, FISV, GOOG, GPN, MA, PYPL, SQ, TFC, V

A decade ago Bottomline Technologies (ticker: EPAY), acquired B2B payment network “Paymode-X” from Bank of America. We looked to a Paymode-X competitor that was recently in the news to value Paymode-X as a standalone business. Paymode-X appears poised to have its day in the sun.

The Payments sector has had its share of attention during the past decade:

• Technology platform companies have a stake in the payments game with the likes of Apple Pay, G-Pay and Amazon Pay to name several.
• PayPal’s (PYPL) Venmo business unit has built a sizable peer-to-peer (“P2P”) payments network on the back of Facebook.
• PayPal recently acquired Honey for $4 billion.
• Square (SQ) has done well with its “Cash App” P2P service.
• Zelle – owned by a number of large banks – is a counter-punch to Venmo and Cash App.
• Fintech M&A: P2P transaction growth and other Fintech innovations have led to a reshuffling of the deck among legacy Fintech players including Fiserv and First Data as well as Global Payments and TSYS.
• Financial Institutions are not immune to Fintech disruption. Look no further than the BB&T and SunTrust merger (now Truist Financial, TFC).

On the B2B payments side, well-known brands such as American Express and Visa (VisaNet), compete with lesser-known payment networks such as Paymode-X (owned by Bottomline Technologies) and Charlotte-based AvidXchange.

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