Minding the Flock, by Thomas Moran
Hello Fintech Friends,
I hope you have a relaxing, empty Sunday planned, because there are a lot of Deeper Reads in this week’s newsletter, including a long list of 2022 recaps and 2023 predictions.
Speaking of predictions, I wrote for Forbes this week about the future of fintech in agriculture. I’ve seen a lot more pitches in the last year for AgriFin startups. With the new appreciation for well-functioning food supply chains following the covid epidemic, it’s encouraging to see the level of thought and innovation going into this space.
There is also a salient climate angle to building tools for sustainable farming and agricultural resiliency (one of the few real current climatetech business models, in my opinion). We’ll see what the future holds.
Please find another week of fintech exits and deep reads below.
📺
Sponsored Content
Want to sponsor a newsletter? See our sponsorship information here.
From Indonesia to South Korea to Japane to the UAE, Asia dominated this week’s (month’s) exit news, and three different banks announced acqusitions of fintech companies.
☯️ Exits
💻 IPOs & SPACs
SPACs are back! Or, at least one is - DigiAsia, an Indonesian embedded financial services builder for Southeast Asia, agreed to combine with StoneBridge Acquisition Corporation at an implied pre-money valuation of $500 million.
Meanwhile, crypto exchange Bullish called off its planned deal to go public through a merger - proposed in July 2021 - with SPAC Far Peak Acquisition.
🤝 M&A - Fintech
GoLogiq, a mobile-first fintech app developer for Southeast Asia, signed an agreement to acquireGammaRey, a personal finance management platform with a focus on remittances, $320 million in an all-stock deal.
TipRanks, an Israeli stock research platform, acquired financial news publisher The Fly for $15 million.
Binance.US entered an agreement to acquire bankrupt crypto lender Voyager Digital’s assets, but the SEC is saying nish-nish.
Elsewhere, Binance is in talks to acquire South Korean crypto exchange Gopax.
UAE open banking platform Fintech Galaxy announced its acquisition of Egyptian financial API rival Underlie to expand its markets.
German digital insurance broker CLARK announced the acquisition of Swiss financial services company UB Partner.
The London Stock Exchange Group will acquire margin processing provider Acadia.
It’s a vibe: circular economy platform Twig acquired teen banking app Vybe.
Thomson Reuters completed its acquisition of tax automation software SurePrep.
EQT Private Equity completed its take-private acquisition of BillTrust.
TCS Group, the Russian banking holding company that operates neobank Tinkoff, is considering buying Tochka, a banking service for consumers and small businesses, for ₽20 billion ($317 million).
Payments tech builder ACI Worldwide is considering selling itself.
🏦 M&A - Bank and FinServ
JP Morgan signed a deal to take a 48.5% stake in Greece financial superapp Viva Wallet for $800 million.
Tokyo’s MUFG Bank will enter the buy-now-pay-later space through its acquisition of Japanese fintech Kanmu for ¥20 billion ($151 million).
Uruguay’s Banco Itaú expanded its footprint in fintech through its acquisitions of Prex, an international prepaid card provider, and Paigo, a billing infrastructure tool.
India’s Yes Bank sold $5.81 billion of its distressed loans to private equity firm J.C. Flowers.
what is an inconvenient truth that not enough people can accept?— Nik (@NikMilanovic) December 22, 2022
🌎 Fintech Around the World
Predictions: The fintech outlook for LatAm in 2022023 will be a fantastic vintage for VC in Latin America
📅 2022 and 2023
📚 Deeper Reads & Features
Have a news item for us? Reach out to [email protected]
