This Week in Fintech (1/29) (Part 2)

Hello Fintech Friends,

As we mentioned, so much happened this week that we had to split our Saturday newsletter into two parts just to fit inboxes…. Here’s the rest!

💰 Venture Funds

This Week in Fintech launched a $10 million global early-stage fintech fund.
Gilgamesh Ventures launched a $9.5 million fund to invest in Latin American fintech.

☯️ Exits

💻 IPOs & SPACs

Neobank Chime is discussing a potential IPO with Goldman Sachs at a $35 to $45 billion valuation.
PingPong, a Chinese cross-border merchant payments provider, is exploring a $1 billion Hong Kong IPO.
Neobank Shawbrook is in talks with pension funds and private equity firms about a potential IPO or sale at a £2 billion valuation.
FG Merger, a SPAC targeting financial services, filed to raise $70 million in IPO.

🤝 M&A - Fintech

Swiss bank UBS announced that it will acquire roboadvisor Wealthfront for $1.4 billion.
Incubator NFT Investments will buy Pluto Digital for £96 million.
Australian buy-now-pay-later provider Zip is exploring a potential takeover of its US rival Sezzle.
Wealth and lending platform Envestnet took a stake in female financial advice platform Ellevest.
Till Payments, an Australian payment processing business, acquired hospitality payments firm ZIPS.
Stripe Terminal will acquire card reader provider BBPOS.
CeriFi, a tax training platform, will acquire tax education seminar provider Spidell.
Aryza Group announced that it is acquiring Benelux credit management software provider Collenda.
HR and payroll provider Paylocity acquired low-code platform Cloudsnap.
Wealth management group Verso will acquire Pavis Financial Management.
MercadoLibre made strategic investments in crypto provider Mercado Bitcoin and Paxos.
SAP announced that it will acquire working capital management solution Taulia.
Private equity firms Madison Dearborn Partners, Siris Capital Group and Advent International have made competing offers to acquire international payments provider MoneyGram, after the US blocked its acquisition by China’s Ant Financial.
UK defense provider BAE is looking into selling off its financial crime detection platform NetReveal.
The UK’s Inflexion is looking into selling off its fuel card provider Radius for £2 billion.

🏦 M&A - Bank and FinServ

US bank Fifth Third announced that it will acquire point-of-sale lender Dividend Finance.
JP Morgan will acquire 49% of Greek bank-owned digital wallet and Pos provider Viva Wallet.
Singapore’s DBS Group will acquire Citigroup's retail finance business in Taiwan.
Investors declined Germany’s Aareal Bank’s offer to sell itself for $2.1 billion.
Wells Fargo is contemplating a sale of its $1 billion stake in a Hong Kong bank.
Private equity firms Bain and CRC are both bidding for UniCredit's leasing business. Meanwhile, Unicredit walked away from its contemplated purchase of a Russian state-owned bank.

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