Atlanta is no stranger to billion-dollar fintech companies, with companies like Equifax, First Data, Global Payments, InComm, and Corpay all calling the city home.
But there is one fintech giant that you might not know by name…yet.
For the last twenty years, Priority has been building the infrastructure behind how commerce and payments happens in the digital age, and is on track to bring in close to $1 billion in revenue this year.
Priority Through The Years
Founded in 2005 as Priority Payment Systems, the company has evolved from a bootstrapped startup into a publicly-traded fintech (NASDAQ: PRTH) that serves merchants of all sizes (think restaurants, retailers, service providers, and large enterprises) looking for ways to optimize their working capital and monetize all payment flows.
The company processes north of $130 billion in payments annually for well over one million customers. It’s been in the same Alpharetta building since day one, going public in 2018 through a reverse merger.
Over the years, Priority has grown through both organic growth and through M&A activity, including acquisitions of Cynergy Data (2014), American Credit Card Processing (2015), Finxera (2021), and Plastiq (2023).
Since going public, Priority has more than doubled revenue from $424 million to $880 million, while growing transaction volume from 466 million to 756 million payments processed. The company now holds $1.2 billion in customer deposits and is guiding toward crossing the $1 billion revenue threshold this year, with CEO Thomas (Tom) Priore projecting $970-990 million for 2025 during a recent earnings call.
Get To Know The CEO
Priore started his professional career in the investment banking world, and served more as an “active investor” in Priority when it first launched in 2005. But as Priority grew, he found himself gravitating towards the opportunity to build out the “connected experience” and the “high visibility” Priority offers into customer transactions.
After two decades of its operation, Priority is in a “pretty enviable spot” when it comes to hiring top talent, Priore told Hypepotamus. He added that the company gets a lot of inbound interest from talent who want to work out of their office hubs in Alpharetta, New York, and Chandigarh, India.
Priority currently has around 1,120 employees on payroll, with most working out of their Metro Atlanta and Chandigarh, India offices.
Part of the attraction is that Fintech leaders and talent see the opportunity within Priority’s tech stack. Its platform serves banks, financial institutions, finance professionals, Independent Sales Organization Agents, and merchants.
While based in New York, Priore is down in Metro Atlanta several times a month as he looks to steer Priority towards its billion dollar revenue mark.
