For Endurance International (Now Newfold Digital): Scaling Payments Without Capex
How MRG built a zero-capex payments program that unlocked $10M+ in high-margin revenue and boosted EBITDA.
Designed a zero-capex, revenue-share payments program.
Embedded payments into SMB hosting funnels.
Built KPI-driven reporting for private equity sponsors.
The Challenge
Endurance International (later Newfold Digital) was a web-presence giant with millions of SMB relationships—but no payments infrastructure at scale. Sponsors wanted more than $10M in new, low-risk revenue to hit IRR targets, without adding capital expense.
MRG’s Solution
We designed a zero-capex payments program with iPayment (later Paysafe). The structure aligned underwriting, residual splits, and portfolio ownership to protect downside, while creating upside through recurring, high-margin revenue.
Why Paysafe/iPayment
Scale & credibility: iPayment served ~137,000+ merchants and processed ~$28B annually before the 2018 acquisition by Paysafe. That scale reduced execution risk and improved residual quality.
Consolidation tailwind: Paysafe’s acquisition vaulted it into a top-5 U.S. non-bank acquirer, ensuring durable processor support for Newfold’s SMB base.
Endurance scale & growth context: S-1 shows rapid revenue expansion into 2012–2013, underscoring the distribution base payments could monetize.
Ownership/sponsor context: Endurance was owned by Warburg Pincus and GS Capital Partners (Goldman Sachs PE) before its 2013 IPO and later sale to Clearlake (forming Newfold Digital with Web.com in 2021).
Processor scale: iPayment’s size and Paysafe’s 2018 deal (rebrand completed the same year) validate partner capability and stability.
In 2012–2013, Endurance International was big—but smaller than GoDaddy: ~3.4M subscribers and approximately 25k net new/month) and 9M+ domains under management; its e-commerce then was basic carts plus payments tools inside the hosting stack. After MRG’s 2012 payments push, Endurance’s SMB base gained integrated processing via iPayment (later Paysafe)—a partner that by 2017–2018 handled ~137k merchants and $25–$28B in volume—turning more hosted “sites” into transacting merchants, improving churn, increasing ARPU and lifting residual EBITDA.
By the numbers
Endurance scale & growth context: S-1 shows rapid revenue expansion into 2012–2013, underscoring the distribution base payments could monetize.
Ownership/sponsor context: Endurance was owned by Warburg Pincus and GS Capital Partners (Goldman Sachs PE) before its 2013 IPO and later sale to Clearlake (forming Newfold Digital with Web.com in 2021).
Processor scale: iPayment’s size and Paysafe’s 2018 deal (rebrand completed the same year) validate partner capability and stability.
In 2012–2013, Endurance International was big—but smaller than GoDaddy: ~3.4M subscribers and approximately 25k net new/month) and 9M+ domains under management; its e-commerce then was basic carts plus payments tools inside the hosting stack. After MRG’s 2012 payments push, Endurance’s SMB base gained integrated processing via iPayment (later Paysafe)—a partner that by 2017–2018 handled ~137k merchants and $25–$28B in volume—turning more hosted “sites” into transacting merchants, improving churn, increasing ARPU and lifting residual EBITDA.
The Challenge
Endurance International (later Newfold Digital) was a web-presence giant with millions of SMB relationships—but no payments infrastructure at scale. Sponsors wanted more than $10M in new, low-risk revenue to hit IRR targets, without adding capital expense.
MRG’s Solution
We designed a zero-capex payments program with iPayment (later Paysafe). The structure aligned underwriting, residual splits, and portfolio ownership to protect downside, while creating upside through recurring, high-margin revenue.
Why Paysafe/iPayment
Scale & credibility: iPayment served ~137,000+ merchants and processed ~$28B annually before the 2018 acquisition by Paysafe. That scale reduced execution risk and improved residual quality.
Consolidation tailwind: Paysafe’s acquisition vaulted it into a top-5 U.S. non-bank acquirer, ensuring durable processor support for Newfold’s SMB base.
Endurance scale & growth context: S-1 shows rapid revenue expansion into 2012–2013, underscoring the distribution base payments could monetize.
Ownership/sponsor context: Endurance was owned by Warburg Pincus and GS Capital Partners (Goldman Sachs PE) before its 2013 IPO and later sale to Clearlake (forming Newfold Digital with Web.com in 2021).
Processor scale: iPayment’s size and Paysafe’s 2018 deal (rebrand completed the same year) validate partner capability and stability.
In 2012–2013, Endurance International was big—but smaller than GoDaddy: ~3.4M subscribers and approximately 25k net new/month) and 9M+ domains under management; its e-commerce then was basic carts plus payments tools inside the hosting stack. After MRG’s 2012 payments push, Endurance’s SMB base gained integrated processing via iPayment (later Paysafe)—a partner that by 2017–2018 handled ~137k merchants and $25–$28B in volume—turning more hosted “sites” into transacting merchants, improving churn, increasing ARPU and lifting residual EBITDA.
By the numbers
Endurance scale & growth context: S-1 shows rapid revenue expansion into 2012–2013, underscoring the distribution base payments could monetize.
Ownership/sponsor context: Endurance was owned by Warburg Pincus and GS Capital Partners (Goldman Sachs PE) before its 2013 IPO and later sale to Clearlake (forming Newfold Digital with Web.com in 2021).
Processor scale: iPayment’s size and Paysafe’s 2018 deal (rebrand completed the same year) validate partner capability and stability.
In 2012–2013, Endurance International was big—but smaller than GoDaddy: ~3.4M subscribers and approximately 25k net new/month) and 9M+ domains under management; its e-commerce then was basic carts plus payments tools inside the hosting stack. After MRG’s 2012 payments push, Endurance’s SMB base gained integrated processing via iPayment (later Paysafe)—a partner that by 2017–2018 handled ~137k merchants and $25–$28B in volume—turning more hosted “sites” into transacting merchants, improving churn, increasing ARPU and lifting residual EBITDA.
CASE-STUDIES
See our partnership success stories
Every partnership tells a story. From Microsoft to Deluxe, Endurance, and beyond, Merchant Resource Group has helped leading companies unlock new revenue, scale faster, and capture greater enterprise value. Explore how our strategies, playbooks, and precision execution have turned complex challenges into measurable results across payments, and ecommerce.
CASE-STUDIES
See our partnership success stories
Every partnership tells a story. From Microsoft to Deluxe, Endurance, and beyond, Merchant Resource Group has helped leading companies unlock new revenue, scale faster, and capture greater enterprise value. Explore how our strategies, playbooks, and precision execution have turned complex challenges into measurable results across payments, and ecommerce.
CASE-STUDIES
See our partnership success stories
Every partnership tells a story. From Microsoft to Deluxe, Endurance, and beyond, Merchant Resource Group has helped leading companies unlock new revenue, scale faster, and capture greater enterprise value. Explore how our strategies, playbooks, and precision execution have turned complex challenges into measurable results across payments, and ecommerce.