Two years after a $9B SPAC fell through, Circle files for IPO 🚀 (TWIF 1/14)

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📖 Reads of the Week

I love Matt Browns' writeup to start the year, Fintech from first principles. I think he does a great job summarizing the success path of some of the most robust fintechs of the last decade:

"Today’s winners started with wedges that increased accessibility:

1: Start with a wedge product that expands accessibility for new segments.

2: Improve cost over time with scale.

3: Expand to two or more adjacent products, especially if their value props can subsidize one another."

Elsewhere:

2024 predictions from Fintech Business Weekly’s Jason Mikula

FT Partners' CEO Monthly FinTech Market Update & Analysis (January '24)

☯️ Exits

💻 IPOs & SPACs

USDC stablecoin issuer Circle filed a confidential S-1 to the SEC for an IPO. USDC is the second-largest stablecoin, with a $25 billion market cap. Circle previously planned to go public via a SPC in 2021, with a February 2022 valuation reported at $9 billion, but the deal fell through.
MobiKwik, an Indian provider of digital payments, credit, investment and insurance products, is looking to raise about $84.2 million in an IPO. This is also the second time the company has filed; it previously sought to raise $250 million via IPO in 2021. It's BNPL product saw credit disbursals of $490 million in 2023.

🤝 M&A - Fintech

China's Ant Group is reportedly preparing to acquire Dutch payments firm Multisafepay for $200 million in order to expand further into Western markets.
Etherscan, a leading blockchain explorer for Ethereum that founded in 2015, announced its acquisition of Solscan, a similar infrastructure provider for Solana.
Private equity firm Great Hill Partners is looking for a buyer for One, a payments platform that’s used by insurance carriers, and has hired an advisor to run a process for the fintech. One is expected to sell for $1 billion to $2 billion.
Bloomerang, a fundraising platform, acquired Qgiv, a rival.
Open banking solutions provider Trustly completed its acquisition of European recurring payments provider SlimPay.
Sovos, a compliance technology solutions and services provider, acquired Aatrix, a company which specializes in payroll tax forms.
Thompson Reuters put in a bid to acquire Sweden's Pagero, the developer of an e-document platform to simplify e-invoicing and digital transformation in finance, for $627 million.
Italian financial services specialist DoValue is in talks with Elliott Management to buy its Gardant servicing unit.

🏦 M&A - Bank and FinServ

BlackRock announced that it will buy to buy private-equity firm Global Infrastructure Partners for $12.5 billion in cash and stock.
Genstar Capital recapitalized Cetera Financial, a San Diego-based independent broker-dealer.

Figure 3 on the UK's recent Future of Payments Report highlights a key challenge for open banking payments

50% of consumers want a payment method they are familiar with. pic.twitter.com/fYLeAhEUYZ
— Michael Jenkins (@MJenkins88) January 5, 2024

Every time I see these stories I think about this picture pic.twitter.com/1vJQC6cYWj
— Simon Taylor (@sytaylor) January 5, 2024

In Q3 2023, after several quarters of heavy losses, Klarna posted an operating income. Is there a reason to think that Affirm $AFRM will not be able to reach GAAP profitability? pic.twitter.com/qCT3Xiahjz
— Jevgenijs Kazanins (@jevgenijs) January 7, 2024

tell a short story in one picture pic.twitter.com/vP4sr1k1D9
— Nik (@NikMilanovic) January 9, 2024

Some key quotes from @HesterPeirce's 🔥🔥🔥 statement on the approval of spot Bitcoin ETFs (honestly makes me wonder if it's ever awkward in the SEC office 😂):

"Today marks the end of an unnecessary, but consequential, saga."

"For reasons I have explained many times before,…
— Laura Shin (@laurashin) January 10, 2024