Hello Fintech Friends,

🤝 The last year+ of fintech M&A was characterized primarily by acquihires and distressed deals, but we are starting to see some interesting transactions that look to be more predicated on strategic value. Check out some interesting moves from Avalara, Mastercard, GTreasury, and New Mountain Capital below.

🌴 TWIF is coming to SoCal for LA Tech Week! Looking for one more partner before we launch our sign-up page. Let us know if that's you.

✍️ Last week, our guest writer Matthew Goldman (of WTFintech), had a great piece on the odd relationship between fintechs and their vendors.

The Unusual Dynamics Between Fintech Companies and Vendors

In this article, I want to explore the unique and often misunderstood dynamics between fintech companies – the end brands selling products to users – and the vendors they work with. Traditional vendor relationships usually operate under a simple premise: the customer is in charge. The buyer, who spends money and drives

This Week in FintechMatthew Goldman

(You can also catch Matthew on our How Money Moves podcast series with Julie VerHage-Greenberg.)

💭 I'll also be speaking at TechCrunch Disrupt on Oct. 30th with two exciting guests on the topic of stablecoin innovation. What should I ask them?

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

Discover how Baubap leveraged the use of AI, before AI's boom in 2022, to create a credit approval model, based on alternative data, positively impacting the unbanked population while scaling its business profitably. Learn more.

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📖 Reads of the Week

☯️ Exits

🤝 M&A - Fintech

• Credit card network Mastercard is beefing up its fraud analytics through its acquisition of anti-fraud and cybersecurity detection platform Recorded Future from private equity firm Insight Partners for $2.65 billion.
• Private equity firm EQT is exploring a sale of its majority stake in Banking Circle, an international provider of core banking software, in a deal whiech may value the payments processor at over $2 billion.
• Private equity firm New Mountain Capital is leading a $3 billion merger to form a new company by combining three healthcare companies in its portfolio: the Rawlings Group – a healthcare claims recovery business – the payment-integrity business of Apixio, and Varis, a pattern-recognition platform for healthcare billing.
• Pockit, a British provider of prepaid cards, checking accounts, and consumer financial services, is in talks to purchase the consumer banking businesss of UK neobank Monese.
• Treasury automation provider GTreasury acquired CashAnalytics, a provider of cash forecasting and accounts receivable/payable analytics solutions.
• Hopscotch, an invoicing software provider for small businesses, was acquired by tax compliance software giant Avalara, which was acquired by Vista Equity in 2022 for $8.4 billion.
• International payment facilitator Global Payments will acquire mobile PoS provider Yazara to facilitate phone-based payments.
• C&R Software, a debt collection and recovery solutions software builder, agreed to acquire the financial health fintech SpringFour.
• Private equity firm Aldine took a stake in Capstone, a software and digital services company that focuses on retail and payment processing.
• Globant, a publicly-traded IT and software company, acquired Blankfactor, a consulting firm specializing in payments, banking, and capital markets.

🏦 M&A - Bank and FinServ

• Turnabout is fair play: Italian bank UniCredit bought a 9% stake in Germany's Commerzbank (including 4.5% from the German government), in a move that caught its German counterpart by suprise, raising the possibility of a takeover. Commerzbank shares surged as much as 21%.
• International bank HSBC is in talks to sell its South African corporate banking unit to FirstRand's Rand Merchant Bank, as the the UK bank continues to sell non-core assets.
• New York-based bank NBT Bancorp agreed to buy its counterpart Evans Bancorp at a value of nearly $236 million to expand its footprint in western New York.

Discover how Baubap leveraged the use of AI, before AI's boom in 2022, to create a credit approval model, based on alternative data, positively impacting the unbanked population while scaling its business profitably. Learn more.

Want to sponsor a newsletter? See our sponsorship information here.

🌎 Fintech Around the World

Iraqi Banks Used U.S.-Created System to Funnel Funds to Iran

Driving a wedge in India’s consumer lending market

Neobanks cannot make the typical mistakes of a startup (Spanish)

📚 Deeper Reads & Features

Is a Fintech Comeback Brewing?

How Wall Street won ‘capitulation’ from the Federal Reserve on new bank rules

Home Insurance is a Really Big Problem

Bank Director's 2024 Technology Survey

New US stock exchanges seek to make a mark

Neobanks (Part 2) - Success Or Failure?

Private Markets Seem Out of Reach for Individual Investors. BlackRock Thinks It Has an Answer.

Pet Cam Captures Moment Puppy Realizes Dad Forgot to Latch Crate: 'Freedom'

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