Exits & Deep Reads

Better.com Goes Public (TWIF 8/27)

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📖 Read of the Week

This week, Barclays’ Rise fintech arm published Money in the age of tech, about the evolution of money and how changes in its physical forms and uses (paper versus digital) will reshape the ways in which we do business.

☯️ Exits

💻 IPOs & SPACs

After two years of up-and-down drama, including multiple mass layoffs over Zoom calls, the CEO repeatedly referring to employees as ‘dumb dolphins’, executive departures, and an SEC investigation, Better.com finally went public in a combination with SPAC Aurora Acquisition Corp. The company, which was once expected to go public at a $7.7 billion valuation, had a tumultuous IPO: the share price dropped 95% following its debut, with its market cap leveling out around $940 million (after the company had raised $905 million in funding through mid-2021). The listing did unlock $550 million of new capital from SoftBank, however, and so It remains to be seen what happens next.
India’s Jio Financial Services, the financial spin-out from Reliance Industries, also fell in early trading from $20.5 billion to a $19 billion valuation.
Nonplussed, small business banking and lending company Bluevine says it will file for an IPO in the next 18 to 24 months.

Lending startups such as Happy Money and Sable are quietly seeking acquirers, as rate hikes make borrowers less likely to take on loans and provide alternatives for investors.

🤝 M&A - Fintech

Internet giant Yahoo! may have one or two more fintech tricks up its sleeve, with an acquisition of social stock trading app CommonStock for an undisclosed amount.
Moniepoint, a Kenyan provider of credit, payment, and banking services to small businesses, acquired Kopo Kopo, a company offering payments services and credit.
German digital consumer lending platform auxmoney acquired a majority share of Dutch consumer credit marketplace Lender & Spender.
Velo Payments, an open banking platform provider, acquired payments software Yapstone.
UnisLink, a provider of revenue management software for independent physicians, acquired AQREVA and Doctors' Resource Specialists.
Trading Technologies, a capital markets tech provider, acquired Abel Noser Solutions, a provider of transaction cost analysis for investment managers, brokers, and asset owners.

🏦 M&A - Bank and FinServ

Goldman Sachs is exploring selling off the the investment advisory business it acquired four years ago through United Capital for $750 million. The group now supervises about $29 billion in assets. This comes as the investment bank retreats from its products servicing mass-market consumers.
Telco giant Orange sold its Romanian banking unit off to regional bank Alpha Bank.
Asset management giant Fidelity is considering selling off its €35 billion fund platform, which offers advisers access to thousands of funds and ETFs.
Thailand’s second-biggest bank, Kasikornbank, is in talks to buy Vietnamese consumer finance provider Home Credit Vietnam for $1 billion.
Australian bank ANZ Group and Suncorp Group filed applications to review the decision of Australia's competition regulator to block ANZ's $3.2 billion buyout of Suncorp's banking arm.