One year in Fintech: 2022 Mergers and acquisitions

As 2022 draws to a close, it’s a good time to reflect on the past year of fintech. Specifically, looking at the big moves players in the room have made. Everything from startups to major players, moves have been made by everyone. Some have even looked at merging or acquiring other companies. In this article, we reflect on the industry’s biggest mergers and acquisitions (M&A) from 2022.

January

Although January is often perceived as one of the slowest months, as everyone returns from vacation, some companies were already looking to announce mergers and acquisitions in 2022. Most notably, this month Tandem Bank obtain consumer lender Oplo to create “Britain’s fairer, greener digital bank”.

The move took Tandem Bank’s total asset value to £1.2bn, including £230m of green lending, £1bn of financing and more than 171,000 customers.

Susie AlikerTandem’s CEO, was appointed to lead the combined business, backed by Oplo founders Alex Mollartas deputy managing director.

February

The travel payments industry saw a revival after the pandemic. When consumers returned to the air, they searched for new forms to make their payments.

As such, TripActionsthe all-in-one solution for travel, corporate card and expense management, purchased Comtravo, the travel agency. The deal marked the second Europe-based acquisition for TripActions Group, with the total investment in the UK and Europe exceeding $400 million in less than a year.

March

Cryptocurrencies have had a down year in 2022. From the start, they had a downward projection. However, this did not stop movements in the industry from taking place. In March, one of the most notable M&As took place between Block daemona blockchain infrastructure company and cryptocurrency API company Savewhere the former acquires the latter.

The acquisition followed Blockdaemon’s $207 million Series C. As a result, Blockdaemon was able to immediately generate transaction-based revenue, which was an important strategic business model for the firm going forward.

April

As we alluded to before, moves were made by everyone – both large conglomerates and fresh start-ups. But when we said moves were made by everyone, we really meant EVERYONE. Every region saw deals being struck, with April being one of the most notable PayRetailers.

In April, Payment merchants, a LatAm fintech payment specialist, announced the acquisition of two online payment platforms: Chiles Paygol and Colombia’s Pago Digital. The two acquisitions strengthened PayRetailers’ breadth and depth to realize the potential of e-commerce payments across Latin America.

The company has continued to grow and expand throughout the year. Fintech Times recently hosted a webinar titled LatAm Expansion: Overcoming Obstacles to Payments Growth. Here, PayRetailers explained how the company has grown and why LatAm has such a thriving fintech ecosystem.

Can

In May, software-as-a-service (SaaS) payment infrastructure platform Paddle intercepted the subscription calculation company ProfitWell for $200 million in cash and equity. Paddle integrated ProfitWell’s financial metrics, as well as pricing and retention software. Following the deal, subscription businesses could connect to Paddle and have all their taxes, payments, invoicing, reporting, retention and pricing done for them.

June

Halfway through 2022, one of the biggest mergers took place in the investment space. Dalberga social impact advisory group, procured Ravela Singapore-based company that designs and operates business innovation programs.

It claimed the new offer would help investment in innovation become more socially impactful. Dalberg aimed to incorporate Ravel’s innovation capabilities and network into its global advisory, sector and regional expertise.

July

One of the hottest topics in fintech in the past year was financial inclusion. An active innovator in the space, GoHenry, the prepaid debit card and financial education app for kids aged 6-18, acquired French fintech, pixpay, in a deal that saw the financial education pioneer expand into Europe for the first time.

Despite the acquisition, GoHenry and Pixpay continued to operate under their own brands with no change in leadership, headquarters or headcount. As the year went on, Visa was announced as GoHenry’s exclusive network provider following an expansion of the partnership

August

After the summer holiday slump, Verso Wealth Management announced its acquisition of Campbell Thomson Insurance Services Limited.

This acquisition brought total assets under management to over £1 billion. It became the fifth acquisition of the Verso platform and the first based in Scotland as it looked to expand its reach in the UK.

September

One of the largest organizations in fintech, JP Morgan made significant moves in 2022 as well.

In September, it signed an agreement to buy cloud-based payment technology company Renovate. The strategic acquisition helped JP Morgan Payments build its next-generation merchant procurement platform, strengthen the firm’s payments modernization strategy and support its journey to the cloud. Renovite officially became part of JP Morgan Payments.

October

In October, Stump Edge acquired credit broker intermediary Finpoint to expand the offer of financial services. The agreement, after approval by Financial Conduct Authority (FCA), expanded UK fintech to help brokers and IFAs. The aim was to help them build a comprehensive offering across insurance, loans and cash for SMEs.

November

Climate First Bancorp – the holding company for Climate First Bank – acquired a climate and social justice fintech platform developed by the startup Accounting. The platform indexes data on over 10,000 companies, and analyzes their environmental, social and governance results.

As a result, customers could track how their purchases with brands align with their personal values.

December

And last but not least we reach December. Despite everyone turning up for the Christmas holidays, businesses have continued to make moves in preparation for 2023.

Special, investcorp, the alternative investment company, agreed to buy Marble Point, a US-based CLO manager. Upon completion of the transaction, Marble Point joined forces with Investcorp Credit Management.

The combined platform will manage $2 billion in assets and is ranked among the top 15 CLO managers globally by AUM.