Exits & Deep Reads

Fintech Spring gets going with $2.52B+ in acquisitions (TWIF 1/19)

A Chinese & Pakistani border guard, somewhere in the Himalayas

Hello Fintech Friends,

That $2.5B figure doesn't even count eToro's filing for an IPO or all the bank M&A this week.

Buckle up.

If you missed it, Ryan had a great interview this week with the founder of a public fintech company: Renaud Laplanche who previously founded Lending Club and is now leading his card startup Upgrade.

I also wanted to highlight a few comments we got in our reader surveys – thanks for all the feedback:

"Love to see how TWIF has grown since inception, thank you for letting me and everyone be a part of the community!" - Andrew G.

"Keep up the good work!" - Mark P.

"You are awesome and your events are great!" - Fernando S.

"Great work, keep it up." - Andrew C.

"Way too many emails, consolidate them or something. the content is good, but it's too many." - Geoff B. [Editor's note: I hear you, and we'll work on it]

Please find another week of fintech exits and deep reads below.

(👍👎 Have feedback for us? Let us know! Find me at @nikmilanovic, @twifintech, and @ndm)

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📖 Reads of the Week

☯️ Exits

💻 IPOs & SPACs

eToro, a retail trading platform founded in 2007, confidentially submitted filings to the SEC for an initial public offering in New York, aiming for a valuation exceeding $5 billion. The company enables users to trade assets such as stocks and cryptocurrencies and manages approximately $11.3 billion in customer assets across 3 million accounts. This move follows a previous attempt to go public in 2021 through a $10.4 billion merger with a special-purpose acquisition company, which was terminated in 2022 due to unfavorable market conditions.

🤝 M&A - 20 Fintech Deals

$1.5B: Publicly traded investment accounting provider Clearwater Analytics agreed to acquire Enfusion, a SaaS provider for hedge funds and investment managers, in a cash-and-stock deal valued at $1.5 billion. Enfusion shareholders will receive $11.25 per share, which includes $5.85 in cash and $5.45 in Clearwater stock for each share they own. Clearwater expects to pay around $760 million in cash.
$385M: Dubai's Mashreq Bank completed the sale of a majority stake in NeoPay, its point-of-sale (POS) software, inventory management tools, and card processing subsidiary, for $385 million to Dgpays.
$175M: Crypto on/off-ramp providerMoonPay purchased crypto payments startup Helio for $175 million to expand its infrastructure.
£160M: UK derivatives trading platform IG Group acquired neobroker Freetrade and its 720,000 customers and £2.5bn in assets for £160 million, marking a strategic pivot to the UK market.
$150M: Amazon agreed to purchase Indian fintech Axio, a buy-now-pay-later provider, for over $150 million as part of its credit expansion efforts.
$150M: Blockchain analytics and anti-crim platform Chainalysis acquired Israeli fraud detection startup Alterya for $150 million.
UK cash printer De La Rue received a conditional cash offer of £1.25 a share, signaling potential acquisition talks.
Jared Kushner’s Affinity Partners received approval to buy an additional 4.95% stake in financial services firm Phoenix from Centerbridge Partners and Gallatin Point Capital.
AccountsIQ acquired ExpenseIn to enhance its financial offerings.
Stone Goff Partners acquired the licensing assets of Approved through FS Vector.
Investcorp acquired Italian alternative payments enabler Epipoli.
Airwallex expanded into Latin America by acquiring MexPago and securing a Brazil license.
Intelligent Lending purchased credit comparison platform TotallyMoney.
Prove acquired Portabl to offer reusable digital identity solutions.
Bank Alfalah acquired a stake in UAE-based fintech Jingle Pay.
Financial scoring provider Moody’s agreed to acquire Cape Analytics, which develops geospatial AI for insurance providers.
insightsoftware acquired Just Perform to boost financial and operational planning capabilities.
Ebury acquired Lithuania-based ArcaPay to accelerate its international expansion.
New Mountain Capital agreed to acquire Machinify, a provider of AI-powered software transforming healthcare payments, and merge it with its healthcare intelligence and payment platform.
Suvoda and Greenphire merged to create a unified technology platform for clinical trial payments.

🏦 M&A - Bank and FinServ

Bain Capital sweetened its bid for Australia's Insignia Financial to nearly $18 billion in a takeover effort.
TransUnion agreed to acquire Trans Union de México in a $560 million deal to expand its international operations.
Carlyle Group engaged bankers to explore a potential sale of UK-based fund network Calastone.
CC Capital raised its offer for Insignia Financial, surpassing Bain Capital's earlier bid in the ongoing takeover contest.

Stablecoin and AGI will break the cycle of 'shiny tech with limited impact' in Africa. They will be the exceptions to the rule.

The development sector has billions in capital with a 5-10 year lag on their understanding of tech. This needs to change.
— Stephen Deng (@mrstephendeng) January 17, 2025

Across almost every country, women are less likely to use fintech products (think 'Robinhood' or 'Acorns'). pic.twitter.com/URJWoWzK8h
— Crémieux (@cremieuxrecueil) December 18, 2024

Advertising company Outfront, whose clients include Mercury, Brex, and Venmo, says fintech ad spend over the past three years has grown an average of 45%+ YoY (@resate_z / Bloomberg)https://t.co/yaETMHyv0y https://t.co/zN3e35t8ge https://t.co/ZOzeer2dpR
— Techmeme (@Techmeme) January 6, 2025