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By Scott Engen Published: Feb. 2, 2022 at 6:11 PM CST
SIOUX FALLS, S.D. (Dakota News Now) - Sioux Falls recently surpassed a population of 200,000. That growth makes the city an attractive place for entrepreneurs, as well as business owners looking to expand.
Businesses like Central Payments, which opened in 2014 as a subsidiary of Central Bank of Kansas City. They work on behalf of the bank as a financial service, which specializes in high-tech payments and transactions.
President and Founder of Central Payments Trent Sorbe says because the bank’s clients are all across the world, he could’ve formed his financial institution anywhere he wanted. While he lives in Brookings, Central Payments put down roots in a community of only about 3,500. “We’re all sort of small-town people and we were really attracted to Dell Rapids, it gave us a chance to recruit talent out of Sioux Falls,” Sorbe said.
Ironically, as COVID bore down on the world, the pandemic served as a catalyst for the expansion of their services.
“When everyone is locked down, and there isn’t a lot of face-to-face contact; the way that people went about transacting went through a fundamental change, and that change really worked to our benefit because people weren’t using cash,” Sorbe said.
Last year alone, the business processed billions of dollars in payments and is the fastest-growing issuer of prepaid cards in the United States since 2015. “We have big ambitions we want to do more,” Sorbe said. And, what better place to chase those ambitions than Sioux Falls? Where Central Payments has opened its new office.
The LLC also doubled its staff to around 70 with new employees, like Jen Miller, who serves as Employee Success Manager. “Trent is a leader that really values people,” Miller said. “He saw the need to be able to support their people as they’re growing, change is very hard.”
Miller previously left her profession as a licensed funeral home director and mortician to pursue new opportunities and was recruited by Sorbe. “Coming from a different background, molding to different things, I thought I could really bring in culture, a leadership component, and build these teams up that are really excited to become more,” Miller said.
Stories similar to Central Payment’s have become common in Sioux Falls. “I think we have a good environment here,” Sioux Falls Development Foundation President & CEO Bob Mundt said. “We have a lot of comradery between our businesses, they’re willing to help each other out, so I think when you look at businesses; they compete but they’re also friends, and I think that makes us unique.” In addition to Central Payments, Sorbe operates Falls Fintech, located in a separate office space right across the hall. It is a 12-week program designed to accelerate market readiness for early-stage financial technology startups.
For more information about that program, click here.
For information about Startup Sioux Falls, click here.
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