Acquisition Season Is Here: The Deal Heatwave
Hey FinTech Fanatic!
Here's a question for you: what are the boundaries of FinTech?
For me, they seem to be getting harder to define by the day.
The biggest players no longer want to do just one thing. They want to manage your money, run your business, and grow your investments. Well, pretty much your entire financial life.
Today's headlines are a perfect snapshot of that shift.
LemFi is making another big move, this time snapping up Wealth8 to expand from remittances into investing and wealth management.
Qonto is on a similar path, acquiring Acasi's assets to bring certified accounting in-house and move one step closer to becoming the all-in-one finance platform for European SMEs.
And then there's PayEm. Once valued in the tens of millions, the spend management startup has been acquired by Top Group Software for just $500,000 🤯 and will now be restructured under its new owner.
One thing is becoming quite clear: in FinTech, boundaries keep expanding, and building isn't always the fastest way to grow. Sometimes, buying is.
See what else is shaping FinTech. 👇 See you on Monday!
Cheers,
Marcel
PODCAST RECOMMENDATION
🎤 Why Stablecoins Could Replace 25% of Cross-Border Payments. In the latest Purpose Driven podcast, Michel Breeuwer speaks with Eric Barbier, Founder & CEO of Triple-A, about how stablecoins are reshaping global payments. The conversation explores enterprise adoption, compliance, financial inclusion, and why Barbier believes stablecoins could transform cross-border payments. Watch the full podcast here
Why Stablecoins Could Replace 25% of Cross-Border Payments
FINTECH NEWS
🌎 Pomelo Goes Global with Stablecoin-Native Card Infrastructure Across 150+ Markets in partnership with Mastercard and Visa. The company is also introducing agentic payments, tokenization-as-a-service, and automated chargeback management to help issuers scale globally while simplifying operational and regulatory complexity.
🇺🇸 dLocal added to membership of the US small-cap Russell 2000® Index, effective June 29, following the 2026 Russell indexes reconstitution. The inclusion is expected to increase the company's visibility among institutional investors and broaden its shareholder base.
🇺🇸 Finance app network maker Plaid is said to be considering a US IPO, although no final decision has been made. The FinTech continues to prepare for a future public listing while expanding its AI capabilities and financial data platform. Read more
PAYMENTS NEWS
🇸🇦 Tabby wins new Saudi consumer and business financing licences. The new consumer finance licence allows Tabby to offer individual users longer Shariah-compliant payment plans on purchases between SAR 2,000 and SAR 50,000.
🇩🇪 Stripe unveiled new AI and global commerce tools for German businesses at Stripe Tour Berlin, including its Agentic Commerce Suite, Managed Payments, and expanded platform financial services. The updates help businesses sell through AI interfaces, expand into 195 markets, and offer embedded banking and lending capabilities to SMEs.
#FINTECHREPORT
🚨 SoFi's net income more than doubled in Q1 2026.
DIGITAL BANKING NEWS
🇩🇪 Trade Republic launched a new best price execution engine and introduced Direct Price, a paid order type that lets investors choose specific exchanges such as Xetra, Euronext, NYSE, and Nasdaq. The overhaul follows the EU’s ban on payment for order flow and also includes the launch of the company’s first browser-based trading terminal.
🇧🇷 Nubank leads as Brazilians' primary financial institution and has already banked 31.5 million people. The digital bank led in 17 states, with primary-institution incidence reaching 34% in the North and 31% in the Northeast, highlighting its growing role as the primary banking provider for millions of Brazilians.
🇺🇸 Erebor Bank is reportedly seeking a valuation of $8 billion, nearly doubling its $4.35 billion valuation from the end of last year. The bank has grown deposits from $1.1 billion to $4.05 billion in the past three months, added nearly 400 new customers, and expects to reach profitability by year-end.
🇭🇺 Revolut launches Hungarian bank accounts. The milestone strengthens Revolut’s local presence as the company continues its rapid growth in Hungary, where it added nearly 500,000 customers in 2025 and saw monthly active users and salary account holders increase by more than 40% and 30%, respectively.
BLOCKCHAIN/CRYPTO NEWS
🇮🇹 Hercle secures MiCA and EMI licenses, bridging regulated cross-border payments and stablecoin settlement. Holding both inside one regulated framework allows Hercle to service the cross-border payment flow end to end: receiving fiat funds, converting them into stablecoins, and paying out in local currency.
🌍 Tether abandons Europe as MiCA ban wipes USDT from exchanges. Coinbase, Kraken, and Crypto.com now support only MiCA-compliant stablecoins, while Tether chose not to seek authorization under the EU’s regulatory framework. Read more
🇺🇸 Robinhood Chain launches and adopts Chainlink to unlock access to the onchain economy for millions of users. Through Chainlink, Robinhood Chain is now natively connected across chains and able to offer its users highly secure real-world assets at scale.
🇺🇸 Ondo Finance launches a custodial tokenized securities product in the U.S. with Broadridge Partners to integrate world-class governance. Broadridge will enable holders of the tokenized securities to participate in proxy voting and receive regulatory disclosures, seamlessly providing token holders with the same protections and rights as holders of traditional securities.
PARTNERSHIPS
🇦🇷 Mastercard and YPF Digital join forces to expand the payments ecosystem in Argentina. The YPF Mastercard prepaid card will offer users the ability to make purchases at both physical and online stores within the global Mastercard network and access numerous benefits.
🌍 VEON and Mastercard join forces to accelerate the accessibility of financial services. The collaboration is designed to bring together VEON’s local digital platforms, customer reach, data-driven capabilities and emerging VEON Digital Finance strategy with Mastercard’s global payments network, technology and financial services expertise.
🇸🇦 Mastercard teams up with Jarir to support Saudi SMEs through exclusive e-commerce discounts. The initiative forms part of Mastercard’s Built Small. Moving Strong program, which supports small businesses with tools and benefits to strengthen resilience and growth.
🇬🇧 IHG Hotels & Resorts, Revolut, and Visa unveil co-branded debit cards, transforming everyday spend into instant hotel rewards. The new partnership and card launch will enhance the way IHG One Rewards loyalty members earn rewards by unlocking additional benefits with every transaction.
🇨🇦 Nuvei completes first-party in-agent payment with Visa and unveils a merchant-led agentic payments strategy. Nuvei and Visa completed a live agentic commerce pilot, enabling an AI agent to securely initiate and complete a purchase on a shopper’s behalf using live Visa payment rails and tokenized credentials.
🌍 BBVA completes its first AI agent-initiated transaction together with Visa, using tokenization, real-time fraud monitoring, and Visa Payment Passkeys to comply with EU Strong Customer Authentication requirements. The pilot demonstrates that agentic payments can operate securely within existing regulatory frameworks.
🇺🇸 Cross River expands Stripe issuing partnership to help power agentic commerce. The partnership enables Stripe to offer businesses a secure, compliant way for agents to pay with cards on behalf of verified users. Keep reading
DONEDEAL FUNDING NEWS
🇬🇧 British Islamic property finance FinTech Offa raises £6.5m. The capital will accelerate Offa's next phase of growth, supporting further investment in technology, operations, customer experience and brand expansion as the business continues to scale nationally.
🇨🇴 Addi announces $85 million Series D led by Citius and co-led by BTG Pactual. Addi will use the proceeds to continue growing the credit platform, strengthen technology infrastructure, and expand the portfolio of financial products for consumers and merchants across Colombia.
🇺🇸 LinqAlpha raises $22 million to build the Alpha Intelligence Layer for global public markets. The new capital will be used to expand LinqAlpha's global team, deepen integrations across market and alternative datasets, and accelerate the deployment of its multi-agent platform across equities, macro, credit, and multi-asset strategies.
M&A
🇳🇱 Adyen Closes Talon.One and Orb Acquisitions. Adyen will begin integrating Talon. One’s promotional engine and Orb’s flexible billing. The company also promoted Gayathri Rajan to Chief Product Officer and appointed Hwa Tsao as interim CFO, effective September 1, as it integrates the two businesses.
🇧🇷 Tilt Acquires Blipay, bringing its proven international credit model to Brazil. With this acquisition, Tilt has meaningfully grown its global customer base, demonstrating the speed at which it can scale in new markets. Brazil will be Tilt's fourth global market outside the US, positioning the company to accelerate its international expansion.
🇺🇸 Top Group Software has acquired corporate spend management startup PayEm for $500,000, with a commitment to invest up to $3.5 million to reduce debt and stabilize the business. Continue reading
🇫🇷 Qonto acquires Acasi to launch certified accounting services directly within its platform. This strategic move allows French SMEs and freelancers to manage banking, invoicing, and tax obligations through a single, unified financial operating system, streamlining administrative workflows for over 600,000 customers.
🇬🇧 LemFi acquires Wealth8 to expand into wealth management and investment services. The acquisition expands LemFi’s offering beyond cross-border payments, credit, and savings to include long-term investing as it builds a full financial platform for migrant communities.
🇺🇸 Grab completes US$425 million acquisition of US-based Stash Financial. Stash will continue operating independently while strengthening Grab’s FinTech capabilities with AI-powered investing and wealth management services. Read more
🇬🇧 Finova acquires Cubit Labs to accelerate its future lending strategy. The acquisition forms part of Finova's broader strategy to build a unified platform that connects every stage of the lending lifecycle, combining origination, decisioning, servicing, data and AI-driven automation into a single ecosystem.
MOVERS AND SHAKERS
🇬🇧 Revolut Trading UK CEO steps down amid wealth management push, marking a leadership change as the FinTech continues expanding its investment and wealth management business. The move comes as Revolut broadens its financial services offering beyond banking and payments.
🇦🇺 Australian FinTech Inlogik appoints Charlie Crane as CEO to lead its next phase of growth. The leadership change reflects the company's focus on helping banks modernize commercial banking through embedded finance, B2B payments, AI, workflow automation, and commercial spend management.
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