JAX Chamber CEO Daniel Davis
Florida Deputy Secretary of Commerce Laura DiBella
JAX Chamber Chair Ray Driver
Kirk Wendland, the city’s executive director of economic development
City Council member Terrance Freeman
Black Knight CEO Anthony Jabbour, who is on the board of Jacksonville-based Dun & Bradstreet, also is on the Paysafe board of directors.
Paysafe began trading on the New York Stock Exchange in March 2021 as PSFE.
Paysafe CEO Bruce Lowthers speaks at the announcement Nov. 13. Lowthers spent 15 years at the Jacksonville-based FIS before joining Paysafe in May.
Mike Mendenhall & Monty Zickuhr | Staff Writers
JAX Chamber CEO Daniel Davis said the decision by global mobile and online payment provider Paysafe Ltd. to open its North American headquarters in Northeast Florida will “bridge the London/Jacksonville divide.”
London-based Paysafe announced Nov. 14 at JAX Chamber that it intends to bring 600 jobs to Jacksonville over the next three years.
Davis said the city’s growing footprint in financial technology and the chamber’s October trip to London were pivotal to the deal.
He said fintech and financial services companies were not looking at Northeast Florida until City Council negotiated in 2003 to bring Fidelity National Financial Inc.’s headquarters to Jacksonville from California.
Fidelity National Financial spun off its financial processing businesses as Fidelity National Information Services, known as FIS, in 2006.
According to Davis, the chamber met with more than 50 companies, most of them fintech, while in London during the Jacksonville Jaguars annual overseas football game.
“Many of them now know they want to be in Jacksonville,” Davis said.
“When we first started (in 2003), we had to try to explain where Jacksonville was and now they’re coming to us thanks to our friends at FIS and Dun & Bradstreet and the company you’re going to hear about today.”
In March 2021, Paysafe merged with Foley Trasimene Acquisition Corp. II, a special purpose acquisition company, or SPAC, that was founded by Fidelity National Financial Chairman Bill Foley.
Foley relocated from Jacksonville to Las Vegas when he was awarded the NHL’s Vegas Golden Knights expansion team in 2016. Foley also is chairman emeritus of Black Knight.
Before becoming Paysafe CEO in May, Bruce Lowthers spent 15 years at the Jacksonville-based FIS.
Black Knight CEO Anthony Jabbour, who is on the board of Jacksonville-based Dun & Bradstreet, also is on the Paysafe board of directors. Black Knight owns a stake in publicly traded Dun & Bradstreet.
Jabbour told reporters Nov. 14 that he and Lowthers, a former Duval County resident, were “a couple of Jacksonville advocates” on the Paysafe board.
“For us, this is a very natural place to land,” Lowthers said after the announcement.
“We’re headquartered in London but we have offices all across the U.S., and we wanted to really centralize in a place that would really feed our goal in growing our business. For me, Jacksonville was it.”
Lowthers said the city’s diverse talent pool and existing Fortune 500 headquarters also pushed Paysafe’s decision to come here.
According to Lowthers, Paysafe hopes to complete negotiations for office space in the next few weeks.
The CEO said Paysafe narrowed its search to a few buildings and includes the Downtown and Town Center areas, but he did not release details Nov. 14.
Paysafe will ask Council members in Jacksonville for $10 million in city incentives and $3 million in state assistance as part of the deal. The state money is from the High-Impact Performance Incentive program.
According to a news release from JAXUSA Partnership, the chamber’s economic development division, the state incentives were approved in October.
“Paysafe’s decision to establish its headquarters in Jacksonville further solidifies Florida as the top destination to grow a business,” Gov. Ron DeSantis said in a news release.
Legislation will be filed with Council next week to approve the local economic development package, the release says.
There were 11 Council members at the announcement Nov. 14.
“It is an honor to welcome Paysafe’s North American headquarters to Jacksonville,” Mayor Lenny Curry said in the release.
“This addition is just another example of Jacksonville’s growing reputation as a global leader in fintech. We remain committed to setting the stage for Jacksonville’s continued economic success.”
According to its website, Paysafe’s U.S. offices include Atlanta; Miami; Tampa-Clearwater; Irving and Westlake Village, California; and Minden, Nevada.
Lowthers said Paysafe’s largest concentration of employees in North America is in Houston and Montreal.
Globally, the company’s biggest presence is in Bulgaria, Lowthers said.
The CEO said about 300 of the 600 jobs in Jacksonville would be transferred from its other North American locations as part of the consolidation and 300 would be hired locally.
“We’ll be encouraging people to gravitate towards Jacksonville and then our new hires will be here in Jacksonville,” Lowthers said.
Founded in 1996, Paysafe offers payment processing, digital wallet and online cash solutions.
Paysafe says it has annualized transactional volume of $120 billion as of 2021 and about 3,500 employees in more than 10 countries.
It says it connects businesses and consumers across 100 payment types in more than 40 currencies around the world.
Paysafe is traded on the New York Stock Exchange as PSFE. It closed Nov. 14 at $1.45 a share.
Florida Department of Economic Opportunity Secretary Dane Eagle, Florida Deputy Secretary of Commerce Laura DiBella, JAX Chamber Chair Ray Driver and other Paysafe executives also attended the announcement.
