Mr. Steve Levely reports

ACKROO SIGNS RESELLER PARTNERSHIP AGREEMENT WITH EVERLINK PAYMENT SERVICES

Ackroo Inc. has signed a reseller partnership agreement with Everlink Payment Services Inc. This licensing rights agreement entitles Everlink to sell the Ackroo Anywhere gift card and loyalty solution to all of its direct current and prospective clients. It also allows Everlink to provide the Ackroo solution to the numerous independent sales organizations and thousands of merchant locations that it supports across Canada. Under the terms of the agreement, Ackroo will provide access to its platform, coupled with direct integration of the Ackroo Anywhere application with Everlink's proprietary payment terminals, providing an integrated payment experience for merchants and their consumers. The Everlink payment terminals provide a combination of access to Interac debit, as well as the ability for merchants to process credit cards through various different payment processors. That processing flexibility, combined with the addition of being able to process gift cards and loyalty programs through Ackroo, provides a true market-leading integrated experience for merchants.

Everlink Payment Services is a leading provider of comprehensive, innovative and integrated payment solutions and services for credit unions, banks and independent sales organizations across Canada. In addition to supplying best-in-breed technology infrastructure and payment network connectivity through its established payment network gateway, it offers a diversified range of integrated payment lines of business, including:

• ATM managed services, providing the driving technology at the heart of many ATM networks that connects the various ATM operators and their stakeholders;
• Card issuance and management, offering a variety of card solutions for financial institutions and other payment card issuers;
• Fraud management, assisting financial institutions to detect and combat fraud before it happens;
• POS acquiring, enabling ISOs and financial institutions with the card acceptance solutions, merchant services and support they need to effectively compete and grow their business;
• Professional services, leveraging the extensive knowledge, expertise and capabilities of the company's highly experienced team of payment professionals to assist clients in navigating the ever-changing payments landscape.

"This partnership creates significant growth opportunities for both Ackroo and Everlink," said Steve Levely, chief executive officer at Ackroo. "Once product integration is complete, Ackroo's addressable market in Canada will grow substantially via the addition of Everlink's current merchant base that will increase due to new merchants attracted by advantages of the integrated platform. Both Ackroo and Everlink have aggressive growth strategies for 2015 and beyond. The Everlink branded integrated solution will support these strategies by providing the differentiation and stickiness that comes with an integrated gift card/loyalty platform."

"This agreement with Ackroo is part of a current Everlink initiative to drastically build upon our already solid and well-respected POS acquiring line of business," said Ross Haider, Everlink's new general manager of POS acquiring. "These innovative gift card and loyalty solutions will provide our independent sales organization clients market-proven tools to attract new merchants with the prospect of improved customer retention, greater customer insight and increased revenue. They also benefit our credit union and bank clients, who will soon be able to offer gift card and loyalty solutions to their merchant members through our newly revamped merchant acquiring program."