This Week in Fintech (9/25)

Hello Fintech Friends,

📢 In case you missed it, on Friday we revealed the venue for this year’s Fintech Formal: New York’s prestigious Metropolitan Club (below). The club was first formed when “new money” banker J.P. Morgan bought the property in 1891, but we think it’s time for the club to get a fintech refresh. Only 100 General Admission tickets left at https://www.fintechformal.com/rsvp

🎙️ Also this week, on our Hey Fintech Friends podcast, Helen interviews the unstoppable Sasha Pilch of Plaid, Pinwheel, Fin Capital, and NYC Fintech Women. Give it a listen here!

📋 Our team also put together a quick survey to understand (1) what you like about our content, (2) what’s still missing, (3) what, if anything, you would change. Let us know what we can keep doing to bring you the best fintech content every week!

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

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☯️ Exits

💻 IPOs & SPACs

Japanese digital commerce company Rakuten plans to spin off its banking unit into a public company, valued between $2.1 and $2.8 billion.
Beneficent Co., a liquidity provider to alternative asset investors, will go public through a combination with the Avalon Acquisition SPAC at an implied $3.5 billion valuation.
Global Star Acquisition, a SPAC pursuing a fintech acquisition, priced an $80 million IPO.

🤝 M&A - Fintech

Finish mobile payments app Pivo was removed from a planned three-way merger with MobilePay and Vipps due to European Commission competition concerns.
Swiss crypto-focused private equity firm Web3 Investco AG announced that it will acquire 100% of Luxembourg’s Blocktrade SA.
Governance, risk and compliance advisor ACA Group acquired Ethos ESG.
Jupiter Fund Management is selling a 7% stake in neobank Starling Bank at a significant discount - for £100 million instead of £175 million.
Healthcare payments provider Zelis acquired medical reimbursement firm Payer Compass.

🏦 M&A - Bank and FinServ

Private equity firm Apollo and bank BNP Paribas SA are both interested buyers of Credit Suisse’s securitized products group, while Banco Santander and Intesa Sanpaolo are sizing up its Latin America business.
Spain’s Banco Sabadell has received potential takeover bids from France's Worldline, Italy's Nexi, and the US’ Fiserv for its payments arm, valued at up to €400 million.
Royal Bank of Canada is merging its tech banking and innovation arm, RBCx, with its group for acquiring and investing in technology platforms, RBC Ventures.