Exits & Deep Reads

The IPO Parade Continues: Figure, Bullish, Upgrade, Klarna (TWIF 8/10)

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Hello Fintech Friends,

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

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📖 Read of the Week

☯️ Exits

💻 IPOs & SPACs

Bullish filed to raise up to $629 million in an IPO for its crypto exchange and CoinDesk–owned platform as U.S. regulatory clarity drew more digital-asset firms toward public markets. The company posted $167 million in revenue for the year ending March 31, 2025.
Upgrade is targeting an IPO, possibly as soon as this year. The company recently surpassed $40 billion in credit issued and now serves over 7 million customers.
Figure filed a confidential IPO draft with the SEC, positioning itself as an upcoming publicly traded blockchain lending platform.
Klarna is considering reviving its IPO plans in the autumn after having paused earlier in the spring due to market instability.
Miami International Holdings are targeting a valuation of up to $1.67 billion in its upcoming IPO of a U.S. financial exchange.
M3-Brigade Acquisition V Corp. closed the transaction associated with its special-purpose acquisition company.

🤝 M&A - Fintech

Ripple acquired the stablecoin payments platform Rail for $200 million to strengthen its leadership in stablecoin-based payment solutions.
Australian publicly-listed fintech Iress entered early-stage talks with Blackstone and Thoma Bravo about a potential takeover offer that could value the firm at about A$2 billion.
Euronet acquired CoreCard via a stock-for-stock merger valued at about $248 million to diversify its digital finance offerings.
QI Tech sought acquisition targets after raising $63 million in a Series B extension from General Atlantic.
dwpbank (Deutsche WertpapierService Bank) bought the brokerage-as-a-service platform lemon.markets to expand its custody and digital brokerage capabilities.
Global-e Online acquired Israeli startup ReturnGo to enhance its AI-powered post-purchase and returns automation offerings.
Sainsbury’s sold its travel money business to Fexco as part of its strategy to exit non-core financial services while retaining brand presence.
Hg (the buyout firm) weighed a possible sale of FE fundinfo, valuing the financial data provider at over £1.4 billion.
Elite was sold by TPG (and Thomson Reuters) to Francisco Partners to accelerate its growth in cloud-based, AI-powered legal financial management software.
Machinify agreed to take Performant Healthcare, a payments company for the health care industry, private for approximately $670 million.
Cinven made a majority investment in Italian wealth-management technology provider ObjectWay, enabling strategic and financial backing for tech innovation, organic growth, and M&A, while keeping its founder Luigi Marciano in leadership.
Elevate Patient Financial Solutions received a strategic investment from Audax and Parthenon, which provided growth capital to bolster its RCM (revenue cycle management) platform for hospitals and health systems.

🏦 M&A - Banks and Financial Institutions

Regional banks in the US are increasingly leveraging mergers to leap over costly regulatory asset thresholds—rather than inching past them—to boost growth more efficiently when big compliance costs strike at certain key asset thresholds like $100 billion and $250 billion.