PNC’s fintech incubator, numo, has acquired Sentral, a Pittsburgh-based debit gateway technology and business that helps large publishers track debit network transactions in the card-linked offer (CLO) space.
“Our acquisition of Sentral provides an exciting opportunity to deliver infrastructure that dramatically improves connectivity between merchants and processing networks,” said David Passavant, numo CEO. “We see Sentral as a platform for enabling innovation that benefits everyone in the CLO ecosystem, and we’re thrilled to bring them into numo.”
Sentral was co-founded and fully funded by Pittsburgh incubator Wolfe, LLC in 2018. Working in partnership with the debit card networks in the U.S. and Canada, Sentral is building a single-source gateway to enable the participation of debit cards in the growing CLO market. Sentral’s platform provides one point of integration for CLO program providers to reach all debit networks efficiently in order to access debit transactions for participating cardholders.
“This is an important next step for Sentral’s vision, providing the resources and market presence of a PNC-owned company to complete the establishment of the debit gateway functionality for the CLO industry, while looking to expand additional infrastructure services within the CLO market,” said Steve VanFleet, Sentral CEO and co-founder. VanFleet will remain as president of Sentral, operating within the numo portfolio of companies.
Numo plans to continue to execute on Sentral’s vision of creating complete connectivity between offer publishers and debit networks. The incubator also intends to use the Sentral technology to accelerate other initiatives in the space that directly benefit large and small merchants, financial institutions and consumers.
“I am proud of what the Sentral team has built; a world class platform that was worthy of a numo acquisition,” said Jason Wolfe, owner of Wolfe LLC. “I am equally proud to see how local fintech technology start-ups can build, grow and then be acquired by larger, local companies. This is good for the Pittsburgh technology ecosystem.” Wolfe is the chairman of the board of the Pittsburgh Technology Council, and will remain on the Sentral board of directors.