Hello Fintech Friends,

Please find another week’s financing events and transactions below.

Financings

• Amount, a technology provider for financial institutions, raised an $81 million Series C.
• Indian credit card issuing startup CRED raised an $80 million Series C.
• Monzo, the UK neobank, raised £60 million in funding as an extension to its June round.
• Step, the digital bank for the Tiktok generation, raised $50 million from your run-of-the-mill fintech investors including The Chainsmokers, Justin Timberlake, Charli D’Amelio, Eli Manning, and Will Smith.
• Moov, an open-source banking platform on a mission to embed financial services into the internet, raised a $27 million Series A.
• Canadian wealthtech PureFacts Financial Solutions raised C$20 million from backers including Scotiabank, a week after acquiring rival Quartal Financial Solutions.
• Pave, a startup looking to fix the pay / wage gap, raised a $16 million Series A.
• Pockit, a UK fintech for underbanked consumers, raised £15 million.
• ConnexPay, a marketplace consumer and supplier payments software, raised $15 million from the parent of Fidelity.
• Primer, a UK online checkout API, raised a £14 million Series A.
• Indian investment platform Fisdom raised $7 million in new funding.
• Ziglu, a payments app from the former Starling Bank co-founder, raised £6 million in crowdfunding.
• Earlybird, a platform for investing in childrens’ futures, raised a $2.4 million seed round.
• ReceiptHero, a Finnish platform for the transmission of rich receipt data, raised €2 million in seed funding.
• CredPal raised a $1.5 million seed to launch its credit card platform in Nigeria.
• OwnHome, which helps renters become homeowners, raised £150,000 from the Commonwealth Bank of Australia.
• ESG insight firm Matter received an undisclosed investment from Nasdaq Ventures.
• York Capital invested an undisclosed amount in F1 Payments.
• The Caisse de dépôt et placement du Québec made a strategic investment in exchange operator IEX Group.

Exits and M&A

• In an enormous financial data merger, S&P Global agreed to buy IHS Markit for $44 billion. This follows a wave of consolidation in the financial data space, including London Stock Exchange’s $27 billion acquisition of Refinitiv (for which it is expected to win approval shortly).
• Australia’s Westpac Bank sold its insurance unit to Allianz for $535 million.
• Lightspeed POS acquired restaurant software provider Upserve for $403 million.
• Affirm agreed to buy its Canadian counterpart, PayBright, for C$340 million.
• South African fintech Ukheshe acquired Oltio, the Mastercard entity responsible for Masterpass.
• Spanish Banco Sabadell is looking to sell its troubled UK banking unit, TSB, after merger talks with BBVA fell through.
• Grab and Gojek are (after much dancing) reportedly close to terms for a merger.

SPAC

• Investment bank Perella Weinberg Partners is close to a merger deal with FinTech Acquisition Corporation IV.
• Golden Falcon Acquisition filed for a $250 million TMT and fintech SPAC.
• Far Peak Acquisition priced a $550 million IPO to acquire a fintech.

(Source)