The pace of consolidation continues to accelerate in the field of fintech. FIS Fintech, the giant fintech which offers a broad range of banking, payment and investment-related services, recently bought the Bond, a start-up which focuses on embedded finance. Multiple sources today confirmed.
The Fintech Business Week’s Jason Mikula broke the news earlier this week this deal had been still in negotiations. Our sources confirm that this transaction has been concluded in the current time.
FIS has chosen to withhold the amount it paid for Bond, a San Francisco-based BaaS (banking-as-a-service) startup. a San Francisco-based BaaS (banking-as-a-service) startup. However, as a point for to consider, PitchBook notes that Bond was valued at $182 million previous time it sought funding and was valued at $182 million in 2020. From the beginning of 2019 Bond has collected the sum of $42 million for funding as per the Crunchbase.
The company has a dazzling list of supporters. Coatue Management led the company’s most recent round which was which was a $35 million Series A in 2020. The round also saw participants from Mastercard, Goldman Sachs, Canaan Partners, B Capital Group and the former Morgan Stanley CEO John Mack.
BaaS, often referred to as embedded finance, enables companies (sometimes ones that are not in the financial world) incorporate financial services such as banks and credit cards and then sell these services to their clients.
The company claims to have “an AI-powered infrastructure,” Bond helps digital companies – which includes Fintechs that are not listed, such as Pocketbook and Everest provide “personalized and compliant banking products.”
Employing around 30 people the company’s main focus is in the development of APIs and software that can enable credit cards for consumers and businesses. solutions as well as debit cards as well as accounts.
In a memo issued written by FIS which was viewed by TechCrunch The FIS and Bond leaders “will determine how the two companies will work together,” as well as the ways in which FIS can integrate Bond’s expertise to FIS’s partnerships.
FIS SVP of Platforms Himal Makwana, in collaboration with the Integration Management Office and the integration management office, will oversee posts-purchase planning, the memo said.
There is no explanation for what the motives behind why Bond decided to be bought, however the acquisition occurs amid an extremely turbulent time in the realms of venture capital, technology as well as the financial sector. The funding activity has mostly slowed to a stop within the realm of startup companies as compared to prior years that in turn contributed to the demise of two large financial institutions that focus on the tech sector.
There’s no way to know how the financial condition of Bond was. Bond However, it’s noteworthy that it had not raised funds in the past two years, and with an overall decline in the fintech venture financing particularly, M&A may have become an attractive alternative for startups.
On the other hand of the coin, larger players such as FIS and bigger fintechs have been taking a variety of steps to purchase fintech-related companies to add the latest technology and talents as they try to improve their products and services in the midst of a competition.
In the spring of this time last year Marqeta bought financial services company Power Finance in a purchase worth $275 million. JP Morgan closed its acquisition of Aumni. and Brazilian fintech company Pismo has been reported to be currently in process of being wooed by companies like Visa as well as Mastercard for a reported $1 billion acquisition.
There are times when an M&A transaction is successful however, and some of the largest deals being toughest to take in. FIS was one of the largest acquisitions in the history of payment services when it purchased WorldPay in the amount of $33 billion in the year 2019. This deal did not come with trumps, however. This year, in February, FIS confirmed that it would spin WorldPay off.