Exits & Deep Reads

Grab acquires Stash; Mr. Beast acquires Step (TWIF 2/15)

Photo by Nik Korba / Unsplash

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

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Reads of the Week

Exits

IPOs & SPACs

Agibank went public on the NYSE, raising $240 million at a $1.92 billion valuation as the Brazilian digital lender sold 20 million shares at $12 each (ticker: AGBK).
PayPay filed for a US IPO, as the SoftBank-backed Japanese payments app has over 70 million users (ticker: PAYP).
Clear Street, a Wall Street broker-dealer, filed and postponed its US IPO after downsizing its offering from $1.05 billion to $364 million — nearly two-thirds amid market conditions (ticker: CSIG).
Backpack Exchange is in talks to raise $50 million at a $1 billion valuation — the crypto exchange founded by former FTX employees reaches unicorn status alongside a new tokenization plan tied to a future IPO.
National Stock Exchange of India (NSE) approved its long-awaited IPO plan, after years of litigation with the Securities and Exchange Board of India.
PicPay went public raising $434 million in its IPO at a $2.5 billion valuation, marking the first major Brazilian fintech listing since Nubank in 2021 (ticker: PICS).
KRAKacquisition Corp (Kraken-backed SPAC) closed its US IPO raising $345 million to target mergers in fintech and digital assets (ticker: KRAQU).

M&A - Fintech

Grab agreed to acquire Stash Financial, a U.S. digital financial services company, for $425 million, as the Southeast Asian super-app gains a US digital investment platform with $5 billion AUM and over 1 million subscribers.
Beast Industries (MrBeast) acquired Step, a digital bank targeting Gen Z, gaining a complete financial infrastructure including accounts, card issuance, and credit building.
Rezolve AI acquired Reward for $230 million in an all-cash deal, combining Reward's card-linked cashback offers with Rezolve's agentic commerce infrastructure.
UiPath acquired WorkFusion, a pioneer in AI agents for financial crime compliance including AML, KYC, and sanctions screening.
Broadridge agreed to acquire CQG, a futures and options trading technology provider, to create an end-to-end trading suite for global futures and options markets.
Lightyear Capital agreed to acquire PayByPhone, a cashless parking platform that lets drivers and manage parking from their phone across the UK, North America, France, Germany, and Switzerland.
WTW acquired Newfront, a U.S. insurance broker, for $1.3 billion to expand WTW’s presence in the US middle market and high-growth sectors.
Castles Technology, Taiwan-based POS and payment services provider, acquired MTBT, a payments solution for customers in Turkey.
Arcesium acquired Limina, a Stockholm-based provider of portfolio and order management systems, for an undisclosed sum.
Bain and Company acquired JJC Fintech, an AML consultancy, to strengthen its financial services consulting capabilities.
Shares, a French investech company, is in talks to acquire Treezor, the Paris-based Banking-as-a-Service (BaaS) subsidiary of Société Générale.
CVC Capital Partners acquired Marathon Asset Management, a New York-based credit manager, for a base consideration of up to $1.2 billion.
Akur8 acquired Matrisk, an AI-driven market and regulatory intelligence platform, to strengthen Akur8’s AI pricing platform.

M&A - Banks and Financial Institutions

NatWest Group agreed to acquire Evelyn Partners for £2.7 billion (~$3.6 billion), creating the UK's leading private banking and wealth management business.
Huntington Bancshares completed its merger with Cadence Bank, creating a $279 billion combined institution, now the 8th largest bank in Texas and the number one in Mississippi by deposit market share.
Prosperity Bancshares completed its merger with Southwest Bancshares, adding 11 banking offices across Central Texas.
Santander signed agreement to acquire Webster Bank for $12.2 billion, positioning Santander among the top 10 U.S. retail banks with ~$327 billion in assets.
Fifth Third completed merger with Comerica to become the 9th largest U.S. bank with ~$294 billion in assets.
Columbia Bank agreed to merge with Northfield Bank for $597 million to become the third-largest regional bank headquartered in New Jersey, with ~$18 billion in assets.

You automate everything else, why not your finances? Klutch is a personal credit card you can code.

Use the API-powered dev environment to implement custom rules, control spend, spin up single-use or private cards, manage allowances, or use pre-made mini-apps to better control your finances

It’s your card. Programmable. Check it out here.

Check it out here

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