Printing and marketing materials provider Taylor Corp. will enter the mortgage industry with its acquisition of servicing documentation provider Venture Encoding.
Fort Worth, Texas-based Venture Encoding was founded in 1972, providing printed payment coupon books and other mortgage servicing documentation. Since then, the company expanded its offering to include a Web portal that servicers use to order and set preferences for marketing, billing and other printed materials sent to borrowers.
The portal can also be private-labeled with servicers’ branding to allow consumers to log on and set preferences for electronic and printed billing statements and in some cases, make mortgage payments online. Venture Encoding also serves the consumer banking, auto lending and credit card industries.
While this is Taylor’s first entrance into the mortgage industry, it’s no stranger to the printing and marketing industry, owning 54 companies in businesses that range from greeting cards and photography to medical product packaging and electronic document management.
The appeal of Venture Encoding to Taylor was the mortgage industry’s heightened compliance and disclosure requirements and a constant, transactional revenue stream in mortgage servicing, according to John Guzzo, a managing director specializing in mortgage technology acquisitions at New York-based investment bank Berkery Noyes. Guzzo and Berkery Noyes represented Venture Encoding in the transaction.
“Taylor’s corporate growth strategy is centered around customer communications in compliance-driven markets and that really aligns well with Venture Encoding’s offering,” said John Guzzo in an interview with Mortgage Technology.
Guzzo could not disclose any of Venture Encoding’s customers, but said they included large and midsize mortgage servicers. Financial terms of the deal were not disclosed, but Guzzo added that the management team will continue at Venture Encoding.
“One of the value adds we provided here was that we were able to find a buyer outside of the mortgage area and who wanted to get into the financial regulatory sector,” Guzzo added.
