First Data is paying a lot of attention to startups (and small businesses) these days, and as part of that effort, announced its second acquisition of a payments startup this month.

The company announced today that it has acquired Perka, a cardless mobile-based loyalty platform that designs customer loyalty programs for small to medium businesses.

Terms were not disclosed.

Perka exited stealth mode two years ago, in October 2011, calling itself the “antidote” to the daily deals sites proliferating at the time. Intended to be more merchant-friendly than Groupon, Perka alerts merchants when users check into the store, and only gives rewards after purchases are made. Perka’s business was described by TechCrunch as bringing “those ‘Buy 10, Get 1 Free’ punch cards we know and love” online. The key value to the merchant is the data, and not needing to give the store away with offers, but rather capitalizing on already loyal customers.

Perka CEO Alan Chung described his company to Bank Innovation as a “CRM service for merchants, providing insights a paper punch card program cannot.”

“Loyalty is a critical component of the seamless shopping experience that consumers are demanding as they engage with mobile phones more than ever,” said Guy Chiarello, First Data’s president, in the press release announcing the acquisition.

This makes the second acquisition announced this month that First Data can use to woo merchants. Earlier this month, First Data CEO Frank Bisignano announced the company had acquired payments startup Clover, leading to the launch of the Clover POS at Money2020 in Las Vegas this month.

The Clover POS is a Square Register-like device — sleek, white and tablet-based — that caters to the young and tech-savvy small merchant. On First Data’s earnings call today, Bisignano said, “Clover Station not only represents nine months of dedicated engineering focus, but also further demonstrates that First Data is committed to innovate with our clients, incubate new technologies with developers, and drive greater business success for our clients and partners.”

Both teams, Clover and Perka, will operate as wholly-owned subsidiaries. Chung described this move as part of First Data’s vision, to allow the companies to remain “innovative and agile” while benefitting from First Data’s reach and scale.

Bisignano is known as a fixer — among other things, he helped Citigroup find office space for 16,000 workers displaced by the events of 9/11 — and he was brought in to First Data in April 2013 in part to help manage the company’s $22 billion debt burden, stemming from a 2007 leveraged buyout.

With most debt obligations pushed back to 2016, Bisignano is free to focus on First Data’s actual business of processing payments for merchants. His strategy with these two  acquisitions seems to be reaching out to smaller merchants with mobile-centric products created by startups. PayPal has said it is looking at bigger businesses than those in Square’s space, so First Data, curiously, finds itself fishing downstream from PayPal.

What other payments startups will wind up on its hook?