Hello Fintech Friends,

To quote personal finance guru Belcalis Marlenis Almánzar (better known as Cardi B), “Invest your money.”

Venture capitalists and SPACs look to be taking a page out of her book, judging by this week’s financings and transactions below.

Open Role Spotlight

Baselane, a next-generation banking platform and financial hub for the real estate industry, starting with independent landlords, is hiring a Head of Growth.

Financings

• PPRO, a UK platform for enabling merchants to accept localized payments, raised $180 million at a $1 billion valuation (More details on the round here.)
• Tripactions, a travel site that generates virtual cards and physical cards for light procurement and travel booking raised a $155 million Series E.
• Georges, a French accounting automation startup, raised €35 million and rebranded as Indy.
• Numbrs, the Swiss open banking startup, raised €25 million to expand into Europe.
• Brigit, a financial health startup that has saved users over $250 million in fees, announced its $25 million Series A.
• German wealth management platform Elinvar raised €25 million.
• Trovata raised a $20 million Series A from Wells Fargo to build its multi-bank enterprise APIs globally.
• Point of sale provider Revel Systems raised a $15.2 million round.
• MotoRefi raised $10 million in a new venture round.
• Wealthpilot, a German financial data aggregation startup, raised €8 million.
• UK mortgage lending startup Perenna raised £7.3 million in new funding.
• Qohash, a Canadian financial security company, raised an C$8 million round.
• Tamara, a Saudi buy-now-pay-later startup, raised a $6 million seed.
• Singaporean startup Volopay raised a $2.1 million seed to build a financial control center for businesses.
• Egyptian startup Cassbana raised $1 million to build financial identities for unbanked consumers.
• OZÉ, a Ganaian small business capital platform, raised a $700,000 seed.
• Quirk raised £300,000 in pre-seed funding for its personality-based money management app.
• Ziina, building an app to simplify peer-to-peer payments across the Middle East, raised a seed round and joined Y Combinator.
• Clarity AI, a Spanish social impact investing analytics firm, raised a minority stake from BlackRock.
• Australian buy-now-pay-later firm Zip invested in its Czech counterpart Twisto.
• Morgan Stanley bought a minority stake in crypto startup MicroStrategy.
• Plaid shareholders are fielding secondary inquiries at a $15 billion valuation.

Exits and M&A

Fintech

• Trustly, the Swedish payments provider, is planning an IPO at an $11 billion valuation.
• Allfunds, a Spanish financial services firm, will list its shares on Euronext Amsterdam at a valuation of $7.3 to $8.5 billion.
• Payments software provider ACI Worldwide is evaluating a sale that could value the company at up to $6.26 billion.
• Grab, the southeast Asian superapp that provides financial services across Indonesia and Singapore, is considering a US IPO this year that could raise up to $2 billion.
• UK retail investing platform IG will buy US trading platform tastytrade for $1 billion.
• Signify Health, which provides patient payment services for medical care, filed for a $100 million IPO.
• Transferwise enlisted Morgan Stanley and Goldman Sachs for its UK IPO.
• Brokerage-as-a-service platform Drivewealth bought institutional broker dealer Cuttone & Company in order to bring Drivewealth’s tech to the floor of the NYSE.
• Open banking software provider Konsentus acquired PSD2 directory Open Banking Europe.

Bank

• Goldman Sachs is considering more acquisitions to build out its Marcus banking unit.

Investment Management

• Brazilian asset manager Vinci Partners set terms for a $236 million US IPO.
• Investment advisor Mercer Global Advisors continued its acquisition tear, acquiring wealth management firms Pinnacle Wealth Solutions and Hart Capital Management.

SPACs

• United Wholesale Mortgage went public through the Gores Holdings IV SPAC at a $16 billion valuation.
• Payments startup Payoneer is in talks to go public through a merger with FTAC Olympus Acquisition Corp at an enterprise value of up to $2.5 billion.
• Expense management software Expensify is in talks with a range of fintech SPACs about a potential merger.
• JOFF Fintech Acquisition, a SPAC targeting a fintech acquisition, filed for a $300 million IPO.
• Fusion Acquisition II filed for a $300 million financial services SPAC IPO.
• VPC Impact Acquisition II, Victory Park’s third fintech SPAC, filed for a $225 million IPO.
• Athena Acquisition, the seventh SPAC created by management of The Bancorp, filed for a $220 million IPO.
• Quantum FinTech Acquisition, a financial services-focused SPAC, filed for a $150 million IPO.
• Evo Acquisition filed for a $100 million financial sector-focused SPAC.