TSG marks 20 years as payments intelligence specialist

TSG (The Strawhecker Group) is celebrating its 20th anniversary this year, marking two decades of growth alongside the rapid transformation of the global payments industry.

Founded in 2006, the Omaha-based analytics, consulting and intelligence firm has evolved from a niche advisory practice into a broad payments intelligence and enablement provider serving more than 1,000 clients worldwide. Those clients range from fintech startups and software platforms to Fortune 500 companies, merchant acquirers, payment networks and private equity firms.

The company said its continued focus on payments acceptance has allowed it to build proprietary datasets, benchmarking tools and advisory services tied closely to the operational realities of the payments ecosystem.

“In 2006, payments represented a simple swipe. Today, it means AI, embedded experiences, real-time commerce, and global digital platforms,” said Kurt Strawhecker, TSG founder and board chairman. “TSG has grown and evolved right alongside it.”

From consulting firm to payments intelligence platform

TSG’s expansion mirrors broader changes within the payments industry itself. During the last two decades, the sector has shifted from traditional card acceptance toward software-driven commerce, embedded finance, real-time payments and increasingly global digital transaction flows.

The company said it now works with the top 50 merchant acquirers, all major payment networks and many of the industry’s largest banks and fintech providers. TSG also claims its benchmarking dataset represents roughly half of the U.S. card-accepting market across more than 250 industries.

Mike Strawhecker, TSG president and CEO, said the company’s long-term specialization in payments differentiates it from broader consulting firms entering the sector more recently.

“We don’t dabble in payments; we live in it,” he said. “Our clients come to us because we’ve spent two decades in the data, in the technology, and at the table with the leaders shaping where payments go next.”

Over time, TSG has expanded beyond traditional consulting into technology enablement, benchmarking, executive dashboards and performance monitoring tools designed to help payments providers and software companies evaluate portfolio performance and accelerate product deployment. The company also recently introduced a payments-focused AI assistant intended to help organizations analyze industry data and operational trends more efficiently.

Payments ecosystem continues evolving

TSG executives said the next phase of payments innovation will likely center on areas including embedded finance, stablecoins, agentic commerce, AI-driven decision-making and real-time payment infrastructure.

The company has also expanded partnerships with firms including Adyen, Stripe and Payforge as software and embedded payment models continue reshaping merchant acceptance.

According to TSG, approximately 60 percent of U.S. gateway traffic is now monitored through its infrastructure across more than 35 global locations.

As payments become increasingly integrated into software platforms and digital commerce experiences, firms specializing in transaction analytics, benchmarking and infrastructure optimization are expected to play a growing role in helping financial institutions and technology providers manage complexity and adapt to changing consumer expectations.

“The next twenty years of payments won’t look like the last,” the company said in announcing the milestone.

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