The financial technology landscape is witnessing a fundamental shift as traditional payment processors evolve into comprehensive financial platforms. Leading this transformation is Thomas Priore, CEO of Priority Technology Holdings, whose unified commerce vision has driven the company to record financial performance while redefining how businesses manage their financial operations.
Priority Technology Holdings reported exceptional results for 2024, with adjusted EBITDA growing 21% to $204.3 million and total revenue increasing 16% to $879.7 million. Under Thomas Priore’s leadership, the company has emerged as the fifth-largest non-bank payment processor in the United States, serving over 1.2 million customer accounts and processing $130 billion in total payment volume annually.
Solving the Fragmentation Problem in Business Finance
Small and medium-sized businesses have long struggled with fragmented financial operations, juggling separate systems for payment processing, accounts payable, and banking services. Thomas Priore recognized this inefficiency early in his tenure and positioned Priority Technology Holdings to address it comprehensively.
“We’ve put our chips on the table that traditional acquiring is a dinosaur,” Thomas Priore explains. “The conversation needs to pick up on commerce solutions, which are a blend of acquiring, banking, and payables delivered by a single experience.”
This philosophy has guided Priority’s transformation from a payment processor to a unified commerce platform. The company’s Priority Commerce Engine integrates merchant services, payables automation, and banking solutions, allowing businesses to collect, store, lend, and send money through a single platform.
Strategic Acquisitions and Organic Growth Drive Results
Thomas Priore’s strategic vision has been validated by Priority Technology Holdings’ impressive financial metrics. The company’s B2B segment experienced particularly strong growth, with a 58.3% revenue increase driven largely by the acquisition of Plastiq, a B2B payments platform that provides businesses with enhanced working capital solutions.
“The adoption of our thesis that payments and banking should happen in one place is resonating,” Thomas Priore noted during the company’s Q3 earnings call. “We’re seeing success in sectors like NIL (name, image, likeness) and insurance, where our technology enables modern financial experiences.”
The results speak to the market validation of Thomas Priore’s approach. Priority Technology Holdings now maintains account balances exceeding $1.2 billion while serving diverse industries through its comprehensive platform. Thomas Priore’s leadership has earned recognition from Forbes, which named Priority No. 45 on its list of Most Successful Small-Cap Companies for 2025.
Technology Architecture Built for Scale and Agility
The success of Priority Technology Holdings under Thomas Priore’s guidance stems from intentional technology decisions made early in the company’s evolution. Unlike competitors who have struggled to integrate disparate systems, Priority built its platform with native cloud architecture designed for agility and efficiency.
“When building your product, you need to have made tech decisions early on to have a native stack that’s in the cloud, that’s very agile, that is efficient,” Thomas Priore emphasizes. “We’ve built with intention to do that, to provide stability and scale.”
This technological foundation enables Priority Technology Holdings to deliver what Thomas Priore calls “cash acceleration” – the ability to increase the velocity of money moving through business operations. The platform’s banking and treasury solutions allow businesses to optimize cash positioning while earning returns on idle balances, directly addressing working capital challenges that plague many enterprises.
Forward-Looking Vision for Embedded Finance
Thomas Priore anticipates continued evolution in how businesses approach financial services, with embedded finance becoming increasingly central to operations. He expects artificial intelligence to play a growing role in predictive insights, risk management, and cash flow optimization across supply chains and vendor management.
“The thing I’m most excited about as it relates to AI is its predictive insights, and that can help drive efficiency in a business,” Thomas Priore explains. “These are things that can be really powerful. But it all comes down to the fact that AI is a predictive tool that will help accelerate and improve our own decision-making.”
Looking ahead, Priority Technology Holdings has provided guidance for 2025 with total revenue expected to reach $965 million to $1 billion, representing 10-14% growth. Thomas Priore’s unified commerce vision continues to drive expansion opportunities as more businesses recognize the value of integrated financial platforms over fragmented solutions.