Hello Fintech Friends,

They say money never sleeps, but it has caffeinated itself to new heights in fintech this week.

As mentioned yesterday, startups announced over $2.7 billion in new fundraising over the last few days. The market in acquisitions and exits also had a particularly busy week. Please find another week of financing events below.

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Financings

• UK payments company Checkout, a stealthy Stripe competitor, raised a $450 million Series C at a $15 billion valuation.
• Account aggregation and financial data company MX raised $300 million at a $1.9 billion valuation.
• Grab Financial, the fintech arm of Indonesian superapp Grab, raised a $300 million Series A at a $3 billion valuation.
• Embedded lending and banking services platform Blend raised a $300 million Series G.
• UK payments API provider Rapyd raised a $300 million Series D.
• GCash, a mobile wallet provider in the Philippines, raised $175 million in new capital.
• Investment management tech provider Enfusion secured a $150 million minority investment.
• Loan origination tool LendingPoint raised $125 million - the company’s ‘first’ fundraise in 7 years.
• Regulatory reporting and compliance software platform Carne Group raised €100 million.
• Momo, Vietnam’s largest digital wallet company, raised $100 million.
• Jedox, a German financial planning and analysis tool maker, raised new funding of over $100 million.
• Curve, an over-the-top UK credit card platform, raised a $95 million Series C.
• Logistics and trucking payment provider Relay raised $43 million in new funding.
• Risk management software Quantile raised £38 million.
• Modern Treasury, which provides new infrastructure for business payments, raised $38 million.
• Ajaib, an Indonesian investment platform, raised a $25 million Series A.
• Neat Capital, a home financing fintech, closed a $22.5 million Series B.
• Moss, a Brex competitor in Germany, raised €21 million.
• Minna, a subscription management service for banking apps, raised $18.8 million.
• CFO software suite Mosaic raised $18.5 million.
• Brace, a digital mortgage platform, raised a $15.7 million Series B.
• Startup business banking platform Rho raised a $15 million Series A.
• HQLAx, a securities lending platform, raised €14.4 million from banks including BNY Mellon, Goldman Sachs, BNP Paribas and Citigroup.
• Italy’s Banca Generali joined a $14 million fundraising round for bitcoin wallet provider Conio.
• Mortgage marketplace OwnUp raised $12 million.
• X1 Card raised a $12 million funding round to build a credit card that sets limits based on current and future income.
• Real estate securities marketplace Lex raised $6 million in seed funding.
• Gig Wage, which provides accelerated payment to gig economy workers, added a $2.5 million Series A extension.
• Vesica, a financial data technology startup, raised a $2.1 million seed round.
• b.fine, a platform for managing financial institution regulatory reporting, raised €1 million.
• UBS is in talks to invest $400 million in India’s Paytm.

Exits and M&A

Fintech

• Following a challenge from the Department of Justice, Visa abandoned plans to acquire account aggregation provider Plaid. The move was most likely determined by Plaid, whose enterprise value has grown prodigiously over the last year as the fintech category exploded, and who now faces a hyperactive IPO and SPAC market.
• Affirm’s share price popped 100% in its market debut, doubling its valuation to $24 billion.
• NCR made a $1.73 billion acquisition offer for ATM operator Cardtronics.
• Equifax acquired e-commerce retailer fraud protection provider Kount for $640 million.
• PayPal has taken 100% ownership of Chinese payments platform GoPay.
• Certent, a SaaS provider focused on financial disclosure management, sold to enterprise software company Global Software.
• Gift card and payments provider National Gift Card was acquired by Blackhawk Network.
• Investment analytics firm Investment Metrics acquired ESG exposure platform Style Analytics.
• LoanDepot, a mortgage lender, filed for IPO.
• Home Point Capital, a mortgage provider, filed a registration statement for an IPO.

Bank

• Aadhar Housing Finance, the Blackstone-backed Indian lender, is planning a $1 billion IPO this year.
• Wells Fargo sold its Canadian equipment finance business to TD Bank and is close to selling its $607 billion asset management business to a group of private equity buyers.

Investment Management

• Investment advisor Mercer Advisors acquired McGee Wealth Management.
• Merit Financial Group received a strategic growth investment from Wealth Partners Capital Group.
• Private equity firms CC Capital and Motive Partners acquired investment advisor Wilshire Associates.
• Ratings agency Fitch will buy debt market research shop CreditSights.

SPACs

• Bakkt, the cryptocurrency venture of Intercontinental Exchange, filed for an IPO through VPC Impact Acquisition. It is expected to fetch a $2.1 billion valuation.
• Accounts receivable automation software Billtrust will go public through a merger with the South Mountain Merger Corp SPAC, at an estimated enterprise value of $1.3 billion.
• Fortress Capital Acquisition, a financial services SPAC, priced a $350 million IPO.
• Thunder Bridge Capital Partners filed for a $300 million fintech SPAC.
• Deep Lake Capital Acquisition, a fintech SPAC founded by former PayPal executives, priced a $180 million IPO.
• Astrea Acquisition filed for a $150 million IPO for its hospitality and financial services-focused SPAC.

• LMF Acquisition Opportunities, a financial services-focused SPAC, filed for a $75 million IPO.

(Source)