STRATEGIC PARTNERS
September 12, 2002
CHICAGO -- GTCR Golder Rauner, LLC, a private equity investment firm with stakes in VeriFone, Transaction Network Services, Genpass, TransFirst and Risk Management Alternatives, led a $12.8 million investment in Skylight Financial, an Atlanta-based company that provides FDIC-insured checkless bank accounts to employers and underserved members of the population.
Skylight accounts allow individuals to use a Skylight-issued card for ATM transactions and debit purchases at the point-of-sale. Skylight has customers in 46 states and more than 60 percent of Fortune 100 companies currently have employees with a Skylight account.
Walnut Investment Partners, an existing investor in Skylight, also participated in the financing.
Transaction terms were not disclosed.
GTCR partnered with Skylight CEO O.G. Greene and senior management of the company in the investment. Prior to joining Skylight, Greene served as the Chief Executive Officer of National Data Corporation, a leading provider of payment services to the credit card and health care industries.
"GTCR is a great long-term partner for our customers and employees given their expertise in payments processing," said Greene in a news release. "This investment is a vote of confidence in Skylight's on-line debit operating model."
"We believe that (Skylight) will continue its rapid growth as it expands its geographic reach and creates new partnerships with employers," commented Collin Roche, principal at GTCR.
