Heartland Takes Over Leaf

Heartland Payment Systems may not be turning over a new leaf, but it’s finished taking over an old one. Heartland has announced that it acquired 100 percent of mPOS tablet maker Leaf. Last year, Heartland bought a majority stake in Leaf for $20 million. It did not announce how much it paid for the remaining shares.

“Unlike its many rivals, such as Square, PayPal Here and the new Amazon offering, Leaf has eschewed plug-in dongles and instead built its own tablet,” according to a Finextra report, “complete with a magnetic stripe card reader, NFC, EMV, and cameras, making it capable of accepting payments via traditional cards, newer methods such as PayPal and LevelUp, and mobile wallets.”

Heartland said that Leaf “will operate as a separate business unit of Heartland,” with a focus on small businesses.

Sarah McCrary will stay on as CEO, Heartland said, and co-founder Sebastian Castro will continue in his role as chief technical evangelist.

“Leaf has accomplished a lot with the purpose-built POS tablet and commitment to empower a merchant’s choice of service provider. Heartland clearly sees the potential in Leaf’s longer-term vision to provide an open marketplace of business services for small and medium enterprises,” McCrary said. “What we’re doing is a big undertaking, and with Heartland’s backing and full commitment, we can focus 100 percent on the product while knowing that we’ll have the resources we need.”