What is a merchant portfolio worth?
Portfolios are priced on monthly residuals — and then repriced on everything around them.
- Attrition. The single biggest driver. Buyers model the decay curve of your merchant base before anything else.
- Concentration. A handful of merchants or one agent channel carrying the book turns into a price deduction or an earnout.
- Portability. Whether your residuals contractually transfer, and whether your processor or sponsor bank has consent rights over the sale. Founders discover their portability terms at the worst possible moment; read them first.
- Industry mix. Card-present versus e-commerce, regulated verticals, chargeback profile.
Multiples in this market move with rates and consolidation appetite, so we keep current figures in our published research rather than letting a number go stale on this page.
Residuals, the whole ISO, or the payfac?
A residual sale prices the income stream and nothing else — fast, simple, and the ceiling is low. A full ISO sale prices the operating business: sales engine, agent network, technology, brand. A payfac or software-led payments business prices highest of all when the payments revenue is embedded in software merchants cannot easily leave. If you have real distribution and sell residuals only, you are handing the buyer the operating business for free.
Who buys ISOs and merchant portfolios?
Super-ISOs consolidating residual streams, processors buying distribution, PE-backed payments platforms doing add-ons, and specialty funds that buy residuals outright. The spread between what these groups will pay for the same book is wide — wider than in most M&A categories — which is why the difference between taking the first call and running a process is measured in multiples, not percentage points. Our payments acquirer index tracks who is closing.
How a portfolio sale runs
Preparation — residual reports normalized, attrition curve built, portability confirmed with the processor before buyers ask; confidential outreach to the mapped buyer set; structured bids; diligence on the book; close. The founder playbook for the whole sequence is at how we run a sale, and if a buyer has already approached you, start with what to do with an offer instead.
Before you send anyone your residual report
Your residual data is your negotiating position. Sending it to a single interested buyer prices your business off their model, not the market’s. Get the portability answer, build the attrition curve, and put competition around the asset first. Request a confidential valuation or contact the firm.
Windsor Drake is an independent sell-side M&A advisory firm headquartered in Toronto, advising founder-led fintech and payments companies. Updated August 2026.