Hello Fintech Friends,

I hope you have a relaxing, empty Sunday planned, because there are a lot of Deeper Reads in this week’s newsletter, including a long list of 2022 recaps and 2023 predictions.

Speaking of predictions, I wrote for Forbes this week about the future of fintech in agriculture. I’ve seen a lot more pitches in the last year for AgriFin startups. With the new appreciation for well-functioning food supply chains following the covid epidemic, it’s encouraging to see the level of thought and innovation going into this space.

The Next Fintech Revolution: Agriculture Finance

The next wave of massive fintech products will be built for the global agriculture industry.

ForbesNik Milanovic

There is also a salient climate angle to building tools for sustainable farming and agricultural resiliency (one of the few real current climatetech business models, in my opinion). We’ll see what the future holds.

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

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From Indonesia to South Korea to Japane to the UAE, Asia dominated this week’s (month’s) exit news, and three different banks announced acqusitions of fintech companies.

☯️ Exits

💻 IPOs & SPACs

• SPACs are back! Or, at least one is - DigiAsia, an Indonesian embedded financial services builder for Southeast Asia, agreed to combine with StoneBridge Acquisition Corporation at an implied pre-money valuation of $500 million.
• Meanwhile, crypto exchange Bullish called off its planned deal to go public through a merger - proposed in July 2021 - with SPAC Far Peak Acquisition.

🤝 M&A - Fintech

• GoLogiq, a mobile-first fintech app developer for Southeast Asia, signed an agreement to acquire GammaRey, a personal finance management platform with a focus on remittances, $320 million in an all-stock deal.
• TipRanks, an Israeli stock research platform, acquired financial news publisher The Fly for $15 million.
• Binance.US entered an agreement to acquire bankrupt crypto lender Voyager Digital’s assets, but the SEC is saying nish-nish.
• Elsewhere, Binance is in talks to acquire South Korean crypto exchange Gopax.
• UAE open banking platform Fintech Galaxy announced its acquisition of Egyptian financial API rival Underlie to expand its markets.
• German digital insurance broker CLARK announced the acquisition of Swiss financial services company UB Partner.
• The London Stock Exchange Group will acquire margin processing provider Acadia.
• It’s a vibe: circular economy platform Twig acquired teen banking app Vybe.
• Thomson Reuters completed its acquisition of tax automation software SurePrep.
• EQT Private Equity completed its take-private acquisition of BillTrust.
• TCS Group, the Russian banking holding company that operates neobank Tinkoff, is considering buying Tochka, a banking service for consumers and small businesses, for ₽20 billion ($317 million).
• Payments tech builder ACI Worldwide is considering selling itself.

🏦 M&A - Bank and FinServ

• JP Morgan signed a deal to take a 48.5% stake in Greece financial superapp Viva Wallet for $800 million.
• Tokyo’s MUFG Bank will enter the buy-now-pay-later space through its acquisition of Japanese fintech Kanmu for ¥20 billion ($151 million).
• Uruguay’s Banco Itaú expanded its footprint in fintech through its acquisitions of Prex, an international prepaid card provider, and Paigo, a billing infrastructure tool.
• India’s Yes Bank sold $5.81 billion of its distressed loans to private equity firm J.C. Flowers.

🌎 Fintech Around the World

Turkey Finally Pushes Credit Costs Below Deposit Interest Rates

Predictions: The fintech outlook for LatAm in 2022023 will be a fantastic vintage for VC in Latin America

Latin America’s financial infrastructure revolution

Buy Now Pay Later (BNPL) Gaining Momentum in Thailand

The Future Of Fintech In Asia

Fintech and ‘China’s Reinvention of Money’

Sequoia-Backed Wave Takes on Telcos in Africa Mobile-Money War

Why is Kenya's new digital payments platform so glitchy?

A new contender enters the African payments industry

Banks and FinTechs See Collaborative Opportunity to Reach Emerging Market Consumers

📅 2022 and 2023

TechCrunch: The top fintech stories of 2022

2023 Fintech Outlook: "We Thought it would be Easy"

Why Fintech Will Never Be The Same After 2023

Top 10 FinTech predictions for 2023

My 6 Predictions For Fintech In 2023

Web3, Crypto, Cybersecurity, Rural Fintech: Trends To Look Out For In 2023

Marking my 2022 Fintech predictions

Top FinTech stories of 2022, a year like no other 🌊

Who were the most valuable fintech companies in 2022?

📚 Deeper Reads & Features

Why stablecoins maintain their dollar peg despite run risk

Banks vs. Fintechs: Why all the billions in the world can't help Wall Street crush its digital rivals

Six reasons why FTX Japan survived while the rest of FTX burned

Rising debt and disappearing savings calls for fintech's next wave

Let’s Revamp Tokenomics to Make DeFi More Useful and Valuable

CeFi Rekt Was the Main Event in Crypto’s Annus Horribilis

Crypto Is Money Without a Purpose

Can Crypto Credit Cards and Self-Custody Mix?

The Road to Interoperability: An Open Metaverse State of the Union By the People Building It

FT Partners’ CEO Monthly FinTech Market Update & Analysis

Banking reforms could make the UK a sustainable finance hub, but also threaten financial stability

Blockchain Accounting and Tax Solutions

What would happen to financial services if we put the engineers in charge?

How biometric payments are tackling financial exclusion

Walking The Talk For Change: DE&I in Fintech

Two CEOs is better than one with Henrique Dubugras from Brex

Delivery apps are offering loans to workers. Experts allege they’re debt traps

Beware influencers plugging the financial advice gap

Financial risks grow in shadowy corner of markets, worrying Washington

Customer Segmentation

U.S. consumer loan delinquencies seen surging to 13-year high in 2023

AmEx Hooked Big Spenders and Regained the Throne With a Pricier Platinum Card

Digital incumbents must beware of potential profitability pitfalls

How Elon Musk can turn Twitter into a fintech powerhouse

Finextra's top impact study reports of 2022

Finextra's top Future Series reports of 2022

Here’s a round up of some of this year’s biggest entries and exits.

Woman Finds Tasmanian Devil in Home After Mistaking It for Golden Retriever's Dog Toy

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