What should we think of all these fintech SPACs? (TWIF 7/6)

In the Dutch town of Waalwijk, customers shopping at any PLUS Supermarket locations will get information on their receipts telling them where they can get help with banking and personal finance. Apparently 1/6 of Dutch people occasionally run into financial issues and don't know where to turn. This supermarket's partnership with ABN AMRO's financial accessibility group is one way to combat that.

Cloudflare is rolling out a new pay per crawl feature that will enable content owners to charge AI crawlers for access via micropayments. The micropayment creator compensation product never really took off with human users, but with AIs, it's much simpler to enable micropayments so that creators get paid for their work and models can continue to get better.

Klar, a Mexican fintech, raised $190 million in a Series C round, which comprised $170 million in equity and $20 million in venture debt.

Savvy Wealthsecured $72 million in a Series B, valuing the company at $225 million. The capital is earmarked for acquiring advisory firms, expanding its advisor network, and embedding AI into its platform to shift wealth management culture.

Natech Banking Solutions, based in Greece, secured $33 million in its Series B round—$26 million in equity and $7 million in debt—just ahead of launching its EU-licensed digital bank, Snappi.

Ambrookclosed a $26.1 million Series A round to enhance its accounting software for farmers and ranchers .

Waltz, a U.S. real‑estate fintech, raised $25 million in equity and a $25 million credit facility) to support up to $1 billion in loan volume and fuel expansion into Latin America, starting with Brazil.

Yaspa, a London-based payments fintech focused on open-banking and iGaming payments, raised $12 million.

Yield, a DeFi infrastructure platform, exited stealth with a $5 million strategic round.

Zango AI, a London-based compliance-tech startup, emerged from stealth and raised $4.8 million.

Monit, an Indonesian AI-powered spend management platform, raised $2.5 million.

Bilt, a credit card provider for rental payments, is in talks to raise new funding at a $10 billion valuation. The company was last valued at $3.25 billion last August.

Financial services SPAC Cohen Circle Acquisition Corp. IIannounced the pricing of its initial public offering, issuing 22 million units at $10 each for gross proceeds of $220 million.

Financial services SPAC FIGX Capital Acquisition Corp.priced its IPO at $131 million by issuing 13.1 million units at $10 each.

Financial services SPAC 1RT Acquisition Corp.completed its IPO on July 2 2025, raising $172.5 million by selling 17.25 million units at $10 each, inclusive of a 2.25 million-unit overallotment.

Starling Bank is eyeing acquiring a U.S. lender as part of its North American expansion, targeting an East Coast bank with at least $2 billion in assets. It started hiring U.S. bankers and launched a Delaware subsidiary earlier in the year to sell its SaaS banking platform.

Lesaka Technologiesagreed to acquire South Africa’s digital-only Bank Zero Mutual Bank in a transaction valued at R1.1 billion (about $62 million).

TBC Bank Groupacquired a majority stake in Uzbek tech firm Billz, marking a strategic push into Uzbekistan’s SME-focused retail management SaaS market.

CoinbaseacquiredLiquiFi, a leading token-management platform.

Aquiline Capital Partnerscompleted its acquisition of SEI’s family‑office services business via its platform Aquiline.

ThesisacquiredLolli, a Bitcoin rewards platform.

TapipurchasedMastercard’s Arcus assets in Mexico to expand its payments offerings in the country. Specific dollar amounts were not mentioned.

CenterOak PartnersacquiredNOW CFO, terms were not disclosed.

I Squared Capitalabandoned plans to make a separate offer for Hong Kong's HKBN, walking away from the deal following its assessment of the situation.

Banco Sabadellagreed to sell TSB, its British retail subsidiary, to Santander for an initial £2.65 billion (about $3.61 billion), potentially rising to £2.9 billion with interim profits. The deal will bolster Santander’s UK presence and enable Sabadell to defend against BBVA’s hostile takeover by funding a €2.5 billion special dividend.

B. Riley Financialsold its advisory unit, GlassRatner, to TorQuest Partners for $117.8 million in cash. B. Riley is expected to record a roughly $66 million gain on the sale.

Chesnaraagreed to buy HSBC’s UK life insurance arm, HSBC Life UK, for £260 million (about $355 million) in cash.

Euronextentered talks to acquire the Athens Stock Exchange in an all-share deal valued at approximately €399 million ($470 million).

SwedbankacquiredStabelo, a Swedish digital mortgage lender, for SEK 350 million (roughly $36.8 million).

Banca CF+, backed by Elliott Management, launched a takeover bid for Banca Sistema worth about €145 million ($170 million).