What catches your eye when it comes to fintech headlines? A big IPO? A major venture capital investment? Or a huge move on the M&A front?

For those whose eyebrows bounce highest when a major acquisition is the talk of the day, one reason why is that acquisitions often but not always signal a major recognition of value in both an individual company and in a line of business. If a venture capitalist investing in a startup is putting its money where its mouth is, then an incumbent acquiring a startup is putting its business where its mouth is, and that’s a moment worth paying attention to.

In this context, NerdWallet’s decision to acquire U.K.-based Know Your Money – announced over the weekend – is a testament to the way personal finance comparison platforms are helping consumers navigate the world of loans, mortgages, and small business banking. A financial service price comparison site in operation for fifteen years, Know Your Money helps consumers in the U.K. by providing deals on financial products and services from brands ranging from Virgin Money and Funding Circle to ANNA and Countingup.

“Recently, the volatility of the stock market, unemployment, and plunging interest rates have consumers facing financial challenges they’ve never dealt with before and searching for content and products to help them navigate their new normal,” NerdWallet CEO Tim Chen said. “Because of this, there has never been a better time to expand the reach of our financial guidance and grow our business, and there is no better place to start than the U.K.”

Terms of the acquisition were not disclosed. But NerdWallet’s interest in expanding to the U.K. likely comes as welcome news to a financial services community that has seen a number of fintech departures from the country in 2020. To this end, post acquisition, the Know Your Money team will become a NerdWallet subsidiary, with all of the company’s executive and workers remaining with the firm. Know Your Money is the premier financial services website in the U.K. with more than five million consumers and 1.2 million businesses using its platform.

San Francisco, California-based NerdWallet was founded in 2009 and has raised $105 million in funding from investors including Camelot Financial Capital Management and IVP. Know Your Money is the personal finance company’s second acquisition; NerdWallet purchased retirement planning firm aboutLife in 2016. NerdWallet boasts 160 million users and annual revenues of more than $150 million.

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Tandem Bank announced its latest acquisition this week. The U.K.-based bank has purchased Allium Money, an alternative lender that offers consumers financing to improve the energy efficiency of their homes.

Specific terms of the deal were not disclosed, but it is made possible by Tandem’s $78 million (£60 million) funding round that was led by Qatar Investment Authority and closed last week.

Tandem Bank will use Allium to enhance its existing in-house lending suite, tapping into Allium’s green lending solutions that help homeowners finance everything from insulation to efficient windows to solar panels.

“This is great news for our customers and the team that have worked tirelessly to develop the business focussing on financing improvements for our environment,” said Allium CEO Paul Noble. “The combination of Allium and Tandem will create the ability to rapidly scale a green banking proposition and help more customers access green finance products.” Noble will join Tandem’s executive team.

The partnership comes at a good time. With an increased focus on climate change and awareness of their impact on the environment, consumers have shown heightened interest in green initiatives. Along with home improvements, ESG (environmental, social, and governance) investing is also gaining interest.

Tandem Bank has raised $175 million (£134.3 million) since it was founded in 2013. The challenger bank’s 700,000 customers have access to Tandem’s accounts that include Autosavings technology, credit card, and, coming soon, cashback rewards.

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Much of the technology world is puzzling over Microsoft’s moves toward a purchase of popular and controversial social media app TikTok. But more discerning observers may spend more time considering the ramifications of Apple’s $100 million acquisition of Mobeewave.

Based in Montreal, Quebec, Canada, Mobeewave enables contactless payment acceptance simply by tapping enabled smartphones (or credit cards) to another enabled device. Mobeewave’s app leverages NFC (near field communications) technology, a feature that has been on the iPhone since 2014, and could allow the devices to be more effectively used by merchants to process in-person payments. This spring, the company introduced its latest contactless payment solution, Mobeewave Limitless, that provides the varied authentication, regulatory controls, and Cardholder Verification Method (CVM) standards required by regulators in North America, Europe, and APAC when it comes to supporting high value contactless transactions.

As such, the acquisition puts Apple in competition with Square, which has been a leading innovator in providing merchants with a hardware/software combination to enable smartphone and tablet payment processing. The option of a hardware-free alternative – sans dongles and readers – could make Apple an instant player in the small business payments space.

Typically tight-lipped about its acquisitions, Apple said in a statement that it “buys smaller technology companies from time to time and we generally do not discuss our purpose or plans.” We do know that Mobeewave’s team will be retained and will continue to operate out of its Montreal headquarters.

One thing that’s especially interesting about the acquisition is that Mobeewave had agreed last fall to integrate its contactless payments technology into Samsung mobile devices, and had expected to deploy the solution worldwide this year. Samsung is also an investor in Mobeewave, having played a leading role in the Canadian company’s Series B round in January. Mobeewave has raised a total of $26.6 million in funding.

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