Younited gets united to Iris (TWIF 10/13)

I cycled across Iran. Here are some pics.

Hello Fintech Friends,

Thank you to @MX for hosting such a great summit this week, and inviting me to moderate a discussion on a topic that isn't talked about enough these days: financial health and inclusion.

Loved the conversation with @ashleybellr, @jentescher, and HBS Prof. Emily Williams. pic.twitter.com/ZWAPQ9q7Th
— Nik (@NikMilanovic) October 11, 2024

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

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📖 Reads of the Week

☯️ Exits

💻 IPOs & SPACs

Younited, a French peer-to-peer lending platform that has served over 1.2 million customers with €6 billion in loans, plans to go public next week on the Euronext Amsterdam through a reverse merger with Iris Financial. As part of the deal, Iris will inject €150 to €200 million of capital into Younited.

🤝 M&A - Fintech

Credit reporting agency Experian acquired ClearSale, a Brazilian provider of identity and fraud prevention, for about $350 million. Last year, the company had 7,400 customres and revenues of ~$91.7 million; however, its stock has fallen about 70% since its IPO in 2021.
Publicly-listed online lenders Lending Club and Pagaya both agreed to acquire the assets of Tally, a simplified credit card management platform that went out of business in August.
Pockit, a British provider of financial services to low-income customers, agreed to acquire Monese – a mobile banking services provider – with the goal of building a platform tailored to serve “financially underserved and lower-middle-income consumers across the UK and Europe.” Terms were not disclosed, but Pockit and its shareholders are committing up to £15 million.
Caselle, Civic Systems, and Black Mountain Software, three platforms focused on accounting for government clients, agreed to a merger to form Govineer Solutions, backed by investor Peterson Partners.
Aleph, a digital marketing product ecosystem, acquired Localpayment, a payment service provider in Latin America.

🏦 M&A - Bank and FinServ

The banking subsidiary of Multitude, a publicly-listed European fintech that offers digital lending and online banking to consumers and small businesses, acquired a 9.9% stake in Lea Bank , a Norwegian digital bank operating in the Nordics and Spain.
Wealth management provider Cetera Financial Group agreed to acquire RIA Concourse Financial Group. The agreement will bring roughly 350 advisors with $12 billion in AUA and $4 billion in AUM under its umbrella.
BlackRock is among firms exploring a purchase of HPS Investment Partners, which could value HPS at $10 billion.
Solifi, a software vendor to the asset finance sector, received a majority investment from private equity firm TA Associates.