Hello Fintech Friends,

While everyone returns from their summer vacations, the fintech M&A bankers have been busy.

🤝 Paylocity acquired Airbase for $325 million, Copperleaf sold for C$1 billion ($740 million), Sopra Banking sold for €330 million, and Mercury* made its first acquisition. More details on these and another 14 acquisitions in the newsletter below.

🍂 We're getting back into the three-month sprint of fall fintech events, with TWIF events around the world in Mexico City, New York, Dubai, San Francisco, Los Angeles, Las Vegas, London, and more. Come join us by signing up on our lu.ma page, and sign up below to see what city we're coming to next.

Fintech Events

👀Want to see our upcoming events in real-time? Check out lu.ma/twif This Week in Fintech organizes fintech events around the world: meetups, happy hours, dinners, workouts, classes, you name it. (Check out the photos here.) Want to join us? Let us know which cities’ events you’d like to

This Week in FintechSabrina Baxter

🪙 I've been banging on for three+ years now about how stablecoins will be crypto's first "killer app." The value proposition – transfer as much money as you want, for less cost, and less time, with less hassle – compared to the current frictions of cross-border payments, is too compelling to ignore. There are always doubters when it comes to crypto, but product market fit is the final answer. This week, the Odd Lots crew at Bloomberg went deep on stablecoins in their new episode, The Booming Crypto Use Case That’s Happening Right Now. I recommend anyone to give it a listen.

The last story of the week is a cautionary tale about founder maturity and why fintech startups should be rigorous in managing their brand early-on. You only get one chance to make a first impression:

Payroll startup Warp disavows ‘affiliate’ who posted about white superiority | TechCrunch

Warp, a young payroll startup in New York, is in the spotlight following controversial posts from an account tied to the company. On Thursday, an account

TechCrunchAnthony Ha

Please find another week of fintech exits and deep reads below. (👍👎 Have feedback for us? Let us know! Enjoying TWIF? Tips are always appreciated 🙏)

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📖 Reads of the Week

America Must Free Itself from the Tyranny of the Penny

Few things symbolize our national dysfunction as much as this accursed coin, which we mint by the millions because it’s too worthless to spend.

The New York Times

☯️ Exits

💻 IPOs & SPACs

• Global crypto and cross-border payments platform Ripple is reportedly close to launching its own stablecoin, but does not plan to go public any time soon due to what it calls the 'hostile' relationship of the SEC to the crypto industry.

🤝 M&A - Fintech

• HR and payroll software company Paylocity agreed to acquire corporate spend startup Airbase for $325 million (which, as Charley Ma estimates, currently operates at a $15 million revenue run-rate; an implied 22x multiple). Paylocity has a market cap just under $9 billion and serves 40,000 customers.
• Instant payout provider Ingo Payments – whose founder we recently profiled on the TWIF podcast – acquired cloud banking platform Deposits to provide account money-in and money-out functionality to the platform.
• Startup and business bank Mercury*, an American neobank with 100,000+ customers, announced that it will acquire embedded accounting provider Teal.
• IFS, an enterprise and industrial software builder, acquired Copperleaf, a provider of financial decision analytics, for C$1 billion.
• Saudi buy-now-pay-later giant Tabby, which last year raised a $200 million Series D at a $1.5 billion valuation, announced its acquisition of Saudi digital wallet provider Tweeq to offer customers spending accounts with money management tools.
• UAE-based payment gateway Tarabut, which has been expanding open banking across the MENA, acquired UK account-to-account payments platform Vyne to begin accepting UK transfers.
• Allica, a UK neobank for small businesses, acquired bridge loan provider Tuscan Capital from growth investor Quilam Capital.
• The Bank of New York Mellon, a national bank with $2 trillion in assets under management, agreed to acquire fintech Archer, which provides asset managers with middle- and back-office solutions to address managed account needs of institutional, private wealth and retail investors.
• MyCarrier, a platform for trucking companies and shippers to quote, dispatch, track, analyze, and audit invoices, acquired fleet and freight payments provider Curant.
• Private equity firm Welsh Carson acquired Equilend, a builder of securities finance software including electronic trading, SaaS platform, post-trade automation, data and analytics and regtech.
• European private equity firm Cinven offered between €500-600 million to acquire the payments arm of Spanish defense tech provider Indra, which put the unit up for sale at a €2.1 billion price point last year.
• Wealth management firm Quilter acquired digital investing app NuWealth, which offers ISAs, general investment, and savings accounts (no relation to NuBank).
• Axway, a French enterprise API platform, acquired Sopra Banking Software, a builder of composable architecture to digitize operations in banking, lending, compliance, and payments, for €330 million.
• Private equity firm Maven Capital sold off its stake in compliance software MirrorWeb to (an unnamed?) US growth equity firm for a 5x return.

🏦 M&A - Bank and FinServ

• New York bank ConnectOne Bancorp will acquire smaller peer First of Long Island in an all-stock deal valued at $284 million.
• Private equity investor Oaktree Capital Management will sell Banca Progetto, an Italian specialty finance bank, to funds managed by Centerbridge Partners.
• American private equity fund Clearlake Capital will acquire pan-European private credit specialist MV Credit from asset manager Natixis Investment Managers, part of a wider push by investors into corporate lending.
• Swiss stock market operator SIX Group is weighing a potential sale of its financial information business.

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🌎 Fintech Around the World

More and more banks in Mexico are offering the Apple Pay service to their clients

📚 Deeper Reads & Features

Credit Scores Without Debt? Fintech Cards Baffle Credit Industry: Credit-builder cards let users deposit money to pay bills. The fintechs say this counts as borrowing.

Interlinking Fast Payment Systems

Wall Street’s T+1 Switch Is Proving Tougher Than Anticipated

2024 Ranking Banking Report: Small Players Dominate the Best Banks List

Americans Are Really, Really Bullish on Stocks

How Coinbase Went From DC ‘Kids Table’ to Political Power Seat

The Role of Nonbanks and Fintechs in Boosting India’s UPI Person-to-Merchant Transactions

How to prevent chargeback fraud

AI Can Transform Fintech Sector But Is Not Being Used Enough

Banks Will Lose Opportunities If They Don’t Work With Fintechs

Dalmatian Puppy With Heart-Shaped Heterochromia Eyes Wins the Internet

Have a news item for us? Reach out to news@thisweekinfintech.com