Meet Usio: Fly exclusive interview with CEO Louis Hock

In an exclusive interview, Usio‘s (USIO) founder, chairman and CEO Louis Hock met with The Fly to discuss the company, the fintech industry, and much more.

UNIQUE FINTECH: Usio is a FinTech company that operates a full stack of integrated, cloud-based electronic payment and embedded financial solutions. “Usio is a fintech payment processor. We’re a little bit different in the industry because we believe in diversity: diversity in the industries that we serve and, more importantly, diversity in the payment channels that we offer. We believe that consumers should have their choice on how they want to get paid or how they want to pay a merchant. Because of that, we offer all payment channels that are available today so that our merchants have the ability to accept payments and disperse payments to whatever payment channel they desire,” CEO Louis Hock told The Fly in an exclusive interview.

RECORD YEAR: Looking at 2025, the executive noted that the company is experiencing a record year, despite slow implementation of some large deals. “Parts of our business are doing really, really well, and are all hitting all-time records. Because of that, this year is going to be our best year ever. Now, we thought it was going to be better than it was going to be. It’s still going to be a record, but we’ve had several large deals implemented slowly. While there are signed agreements, we thought they would be implemented earlier in the year. We’re kind of at the mercy of our merchants when they’re ready to pull the trigger and implement with us but once they do implement with us, it’s a very sticky implementation, with very little turnover in that base,” Hock explains.

FOCUS: Usio expects to see continued growth as it focusses on implementing recent deals. “We are a company historically does a really good job at executing and will continue to grow and it’s not just growth in sales or revenue but you’re going to see expansion in our EBITDA and continued positive cash flow. So, on the financial side, we’re going to be stronger and stronger quarter. Our focus is on implementing as many deals we’ve already sold as fast as we can. Our pipeline is extremely strong and strong it’s ever been in the history of the company.”

INCREASING M&A: As the industry moves to include alternative channels, Usio’s CEO believes consolidation in the space is going to start occurring at an even faster pace. “M&A activity has definitely increased this year; previous 3-4 years it was really slow. The environment is right for more consolidation, and I think that we’ll see that not only in our industries but in other industries. One of the things that the industry can do better is to make sure that we keep at the forefront of new payment channels. Stable coins are going to be a big player in the in the in the in the future of payments. You can see that a lot of processors are still focusing on traditional payments and they’re going to start feeling pressure if they’re not having the alternative channels as well. I think that consolidation is going to occur even at a faster pace for fintech payment processors that are focusing on future solutions that consumers and merchants are demanding.”

PRINT HOUSE: The CEO believes that one of the least well-known and understood businesses inside Usio is the company’s print house business. “People don’t understand or some people don’t understand the value of us having an output division or print house. That division prints primarily for financial institutions, cities and counties for tax notices and a lot of utilities and insurance companies. Without that division we wouldn’t have prestigious accounts like LA county in Miami Dade county where we do fees and fines processing for them. Part of having the payment processing is that you have to print notices. Because we offer that service we get more payments business. Another good example is that we process payments for toll roads throughout United States, including large ones that you would know like New Jersey Turnpike and the whole state of Massachusetts, the Florida Turnpike. We’re the company that mails you a letter with a picture of your license plate and it says you went through these different tolls with a QR code for you to make a payment. We can’t access that business or compete for that business without a print house. Also, at our print house we print a lot of checks, which is always amazing to me that the number goes up every year,” the CEO added.

Meet the Company” is The Fly’s recurring series of exclusive short interviews with Executive Officers to offer a deeper look inside the company.