US-based fintech platform WEX has agreed to buy a cloud-based benefits administrator benefitexpress in a deal worth $275m.
The deal significantly boosts WEX’s offerings in benefits administration by adding a complementary suite of solutions to its health offerings.
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This includes employee enrolment and decision support tools for employees, benefits administration, in addition to value-added services, such as dependent verification services, and other benefit administration services.
Furthermore, the addition of benefitexpress will also help the fintech to expand its employee benefits products and services to fully cater to the requirements of the employer clients.
The combined offering is also expected to accelerate opportunities for WEX within the public sector.
Commenting on the deal, WEX health division president Robert Deshaies said: “The acquisition of benefitexpress accelerates our strategic vision of offering a complete healthcare ecosystem with a highly complementary benefits administration platform at its core.
“We are excited to welcome the benefitexpress team to the WEX family and look forward to delivering increased value to employers, consumers, and partners through a comprehensive and integrated suite of products, services and technologies.”
The transaction, subject to regulatory approvals, is expected to be completed in the second quarter of the year.
William Blair acted as financial advisor to benefitexpress while Wilmer Cutler Pickering Hale and Dorr provided legal advice to WEX.
In January this year, WEX partnered with online business management platform MYOB to provide Australian businesses with B2B payments.
Last January, the fintech agreed to acquire business-to-business (B2B) payments companies eNett and Optal for $1.7bn.
