The Main Edition - Exits & Deep Reads

Flutterwave is prepping Africa's next fintech IPO (TWIF 4/28)

You don’t need to like fermented grapes to enjoy the ambiance

Hello Fintech Friends,

In case you missed it, some updates from around TWIF this week:

Also, in an ongoing story announced yesterday, Philadelphia-based Republic Bank was closed this weekend by Pennsylvania bank regulators, which appointed the FDIC as receiver:

Please find another week of fintech exits and deep reads below. (👍👎 Have feedback for us? Let us know!)

📖 Reads of the Week

"Large banks have continued to invest in and develop blockchain-based solutions for banking and payments throughout the crypto bear market. Depending on definitions, there are five high-profile blockchain consortiums/joint initiatives in the banking and payments space. [...]

During the 2020-2022 crypto bull market, much ink was spilled on the potential for blockchain to improve elements of the real estate industry, such as the mortgage ecosystem, real estate transactions, the land registry process, etc. Like the insurance industry, however, it is difficult to find up-to-date information on the various blockchain projects undertaken by the largest real estate firms."

☯️ Exits

💻 IPOs & SPACs

African payments unicorn Flutterwave, which operates in 30 countries, is getting ready to IPO. It was last valued at $3 billion in 2021.
UK commodities broker Marex Group priced its US IPO last week slightly below the midpoint share price estimate of $19 and traded flat, raising $292 million.

🤝 M&A - Fintech

Paystand acquired spend management software builder Teampay to build a “no-fee B2B digital payment and spend powerhouse.” Financial terms of the deal were not disclosed, but Teampay raised $65 million since it was founded in 2016.
Cross-border payments company Thunes will acquire Tilia, a US gaming-focused payment provider that offers payment solutions (acceptance and pay-outs) for online games, virtual worlds, creator economies, and in-app purchases.
Klarna is selling Hero, the virtual shopping platform it acquired in 2021 for €160 million, to video commerce company Bambuser for €1.3 million.
AI financial crime detection startup ComplyAdvantage acquired Golden Recursion, which builds knowledge graphs to show interconnected data points and their relationships for the purpose of analysing complex information.
Huma Finance, a tokenization platform, merged with Arf, a transaction services platform that provides liquidity for financial institutions.
Triple Private Equity acquired the majority stake in SmartSearch, a British provider of digital compliance and anti-money laundering software.

🏦 M&A - Bank and FinServ

Goldman Sachs is closing down its roboadvisor Marcus Invest and transferring all accounts to Betterment. Terms of the sale were not disclosed.
Private equity firm Apollo sold a stake in the lending business it acquired from Credit Suisse to MassMutual for $2 billion.
India's Kotak Mahindra Bank acquired non-banking finance company and micro finance institution Sonata Finance for ₹5.4 billion.
AssetMark, a wealth management technology platform for financial advisors, signed an agreement to be acquired by private equity firm GTCR for $2.7 billion.
Hawaiian Electric Industries, the utility under scrutiny for its role in last year’s deadly Lahaina wildfire, is exploring a sale of American Savings Bank, which it owns and which had about $486 million in average shareholder equity in 2023.
Eurazeo will buy a majority stake in Eres, one of France's leading providers of structuring, asset management and distribution of employee savings plans.
French buyout firm Ardian is close to a deal to acquire more than $1 billion of private equity fund stakes from British Columbia Investment Management .
Allfunds Group abandoned discussions over a potential sale of the European fund distribution platform.