James Bergman

James Bergman is a Managing Director at Corstone, where he is responsible for the firm's activities across the FinTech industry on a global basis — identifying acquisitions and overseeing the growth and development of portfolio companies. Corstone (Corstone Capital Corporation) is a diversified investment and strategic advisory firm active in alternative investment markets since 1993, reporting roughly $600M AUM and having organized over $3.5B of aggregate capital commitments across funds and companies worldwide. Public investor directories list Bergman's association with Corstone shifting to an advisory capacity around June 2019.

Bergman is a career payments executive. In 2007 he joined the board of Earthport Plc, a London-listed cross-border payments company, and became its Chief Executive Officer in June 2008, helping build the company's position in international payments; Earthport was ultimately acquired by Visa in 2019. Following his 2010 acquisition of a boutique international payment services provider, he led that company to an exit with Credorax (a licensed acquirer and payment institution) within roughly 18 months, then served as Credorax's Vice President of Sales until 2014.

In 2015, Bergman and a group of international co-investors established Transact Europe Holdings, which acquired TBI Credit — a European licensed payment and e-money institution that had held principal member status with Visa and Mastercard for over 20 years. Rebranded as Transact Europe, the business grew across issuing, acquiring, and payment products; it was acquired by GreenBox POS (NASDAQ: GBOX) in April 2022 for approximately $28M. Separately, Bergman established a payments practice that he sold in 2016 to LaSalle Capital, becoming Chief Revenue Officer of Processing.com, where he led global sales, marketing, and acquiring strategy.

He has also served as Chairman of CentBanx Holdings, Inc. (Miami Beach, FL) and as a Principal at Centurion Commerce, and is associated with more than a dozen companies in public records — reflecting a hands-on operator-investor profile rather than a traditional VC fund manager.

• Concentrates on payments and FinTech — acquirers, issuers, e-money/payment institutions, and payment technology — the sector he has operated in for two decades.
• Operator-investor model: often takes controlling or executive positions (Chairman, CEO, CRO), acquiring or founding companies and driving them to exit rather than passively writing minority checks.
• At the firm level, Corstone pursues expansion, acquisition, and distressed/opportunistic deals with reported check sizes of roughly $500K–$25M, applying a disciplined, long-term evaluation process.
• Track record biased toward buy-and-build in cross-border/international payments, with clear paths to strategic acquirers (Visa, GreenBox, LaSalle, Credorax).