Housatonic Partners Announces Strategic Growth Investment in eCard Systems

San Francisco, CA, and Brentwood, TN – December 15, 2023 – Housatonic Partners, a growth-oriented private equity firm based in San Francisco, is pleased to announce a strategic investment in eCard Systems (“eCard”), an end-to-end provider of outsourced gift card programs and processing services for more than 100,000 restaurants, retail stores, salons & spas, and other small-to-medium sized businesses.

Headquartered in Brentwood, TN, eCard offers a full suite of outsourced gift card solutions, including physical gift cards, digital gift card storefronts, and gift card processing software. eCard’s proprietary gift card processing software facilitates solving complex merchant needs, enabling merchants with multiple locations, multiple owners, or multiple point-of-sale technologies to easily sell and process gift cards enterprise-wide across all locations. The Company’s gift card solutions work with more than 125 point-of-sale providers, including dedicated online ordering portals for Square, Toast, Lightspeed, SpotOn, ShopKeep, TouchBistro, Upserve and many others.

eCard is led by CEO Benjamin Berg, a search fund entrepreneur who acquired the company in 2017 with support from an investor group including Housatonic. Berg subsequently accelerated investments in the Company’s sales, marketing, technology, and production capabilities, resulting in meaningful growth in eCard’s customer base and closer partnerships with numerous additional point-of-sale and payments companies.

“Today marks a significant milestone in eCard Systems’ journey,” said Berg. "We’re thrilled to deepen our partnership with the Housatonic team given their extensive track record of supporting and growing search fund businesses. We look forward to working with them to continue expanding our gift card program offerings for merchants and are confident that this partnership will greatly benefit our customer base and point-of-sale partners.”

“We are excited about Benjamin’s vision for continuing to build a best-in-class business in the attractive gift card industry. We look forward to further collaboration with eCard Systems and Benjamin over the coming years,” commented Housatonic Partners Managing Director Joe Niehaus, who has joined the company’s Board of Directors.

Financial terms of the partnership were not disclosed. Canaccord Genuity and Kroll Securities acted as financial advisors to eCard Systems.

About eCard Systems
eCard Systems is a premium provider of outsourced gift card solutions for more than 100,000 merchants in the restaurant, retail and hospitality industries in the U.S. and abroad. The company provides a comprehensive suite of gift card products and processing services, with easy-to-use online ordering and high-touch customer service. For more information, please visit WWW.ECARDSYSTEMS.COM.

About Housatonic Partners
Housatonic Partners, founded in 1994, is a private equity investment firm with more than $1.5 billion in capital under management. The firm invests in growing, profitable businesses with highly recurring revenue. Housatonic Partners has backed exceptional management teams in more than 100 small to mid-sized companies over the last 28 years. For more information, please visit WWW.HOUSATONICPARTNERS.COM.