Hello Fintech Friends,

Today’s newsletter is brought to you by our friends at Newline, by Fifth Third.

We were excited for Jørn and our friends at Bmoni*, who this week came out of stealth:

Meet the founder who built a $500 million company — and launched BMONI to redefine how Africa saves, spends, and grows wealth

Jorn Lyseggen built a $500 million company from scratch and trained over 2,000 African founders through MEST

Business Insider AfricaAdekunle Agbetiloye

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

Have feedback for us? Let us know. Find me at @nikmilanovic, @twifintech, and @ndm

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News coverage written and provided by Rachel Chang.

Reads of the Week

Digital Payment Innovations in Sub-Saharan Africa

This paper takes stock of developments and policy issues related to digital payments innovations across sub-Saharan African (SSA), including central bank digital currency (CBDC), fast payments systems (FPS), mobile money, and crypto assets, which are now at the forefront of policymakers’ attention in the region. Drawing on insights from a recent IMF survey of SSA central banks (Ricci and others, 2024), the analysis is grounded in the unique characteristics of SSA compared with other regions. The paper offers tailored recommendations related to policy, regulation, and design, aimed at strengthening the digital payment landscape in the region. It notes the important role of strengthening digital infrastructure and leveling the playing field for private sector involvement through an enabling, competitive, interoperable and secure operating environment. The development of mobile money and FPS should be encouraged. CBDCs can complement these and could be pursued when there are well-identified market failures or other strategic reasons that require public intervention in the digital payment space. While crypto assets (especially adequately backed stablecoins) can support financial innovations, they are also associated with risks that should be contained through comprehensive regulations. Crypto assets should not be adopted as legal tenders. Stronger collaboration across borders can foster efficiency gains and international interoperability of payment systems.

IMFLuca A Ricci,

Exits

Exits

IPOs & SPACs

• PicPay plans for a U.S. IPO as the Brazilian mobile banking app seeks to raise up to $500 million.
• Exzeo plans for a U.S. IPO, where the insurance fintech aims to raise $176 million at a $2 billion valuation.
• White Pearl Acquisition Corp. filed for a $50 million SPAC IPO targeting fintech and information technology businesses.

M&A - Fintech

• Xero acquired Melio, a U.S. SMB bill pay platform, for $2.5 billion to unite accounting and payments in a single platform for U.S. customers.
• SS&C Technologies acquired Calastone, a UK-based global funds network, in a $1 billion deal.
• Ripple acquired GTreasury to enter the corporate treasury software market and expand its offerings into liquidity management.
• Revolut acquired Swifty, an AI travel-assistant startup incubated at Lufthansa Innovation Hub, to enhance its loyalty and lifestyle products.
• Payroc acquired BlueSnap, a payments and AR-automation platform, to expand its cross-border payments and invoicing capabilities.

M&A - Banks and Financial Institutions

• First Citizens agreed to acquire 138 BMO branches across 11 U.S. states, assuming over $5.7 billion in deposits and $1.1 billion in loans.
• BTG Pactual announced a merger with Banco Pan in Brazil to incorporate shares of Banco Pan, making Banco Pan an indirect wholly-owned subsidiary.

SPONSORE

Are you ready to grow your fintech with scalable, API-enabled payments? Backed by a leading financial institution, Newline™ by Fifth Third empowers enterprise fintechs to effortlessly launch and scale payment, card and deposit products directly with Fifth Third Bank.

Learn more at newline53.com

Want to sponsor a newsletter? See our sponsorship information here.