FLEETCOR Invests in Zapay, Expands Vehicle Payments Business in Brazil

Business payments company FLEETCOR Technologies has closed a majority investment in Brazilian vehicle payments company Zapay.

This investment further scales FLEETCOR’s Vehicle Payments business in Brazil, providing access to Zapay’s 2 million monthly users and increasing FLEETCOR’s reach to a total of 9 million drivers in the country, the company said in a Wednesday (March 6) press release.

“The addition of Zapay further advances our vehicle payments strategy in Brazil,” Ron Clarke, chairman and CEO of FLEETCOR, said in the release. “We invested in the company to capitalize on the attractive two-way cross-sell opportunity.”

FLEETCOR has already begun cross-selling Zapay’s solution to its existing 7 million drivers in Brazil, as well as cross-selling its own vehicle payment products to the 2 million drivers who use Zapay’s mobile app and website every month, Clarke added.

Zapay’s digital mobility solution enables drivers to pay vehicle taxes, registration and tickets, according to the release. It is the only company integrated to all 27 Brazilian states’ National Traffic Departments.

The Brazilian company is currently seeing revenue growth of 60% a year, the release said.

With the agreement announced Wednesday, FLEETCOR also has the right to acquire the rest of Zapay in four years, per the release.

“We’ve had fantastic success expanding our Brazil business from mostly toll tags to other vehicle-related categories like fuel, parking and insurance,” Armando Netto, group president of vehicle payments in Brazil and North America at FLEETCOR, said in the release. “So, we’re quite excited to integrate Zapay’s solution into our existing offering.”

In an earlier acquisition, FLEETCOR acquired cloud-based electric vehicle (EV) charging software platform Mina in February 2023, saying the purchase gives it a solution for commercial fleets in the United Kingdom that captures, calculates and pays for at-home charging of business-use vehicles.

In October 2022, the company announced its plans to acquire European workforce lodging provider Roomex, which FLEETCOR said would help it add to its lodging business and expand more internationally.

In September 2022, FLEETCOR bought European EV software and network provider Plugsurfing to add EV solutions for its commercial fleet customers and pursue new customer segments.