Mergers & Acquisitions

Glassbox Acquires Business Monitoring and Analytics Specialist Anodot

Glassbox Acquires Business Monitoring and Analytics Specialist Anodot
By David Penn Posted on
Categories: Alumni News, Anodot, Mergers & Acquisitions
  • Digital experience analytics company Glassbox has acquired anomaly detection and business monitoring firm Anodot. Terms of the deal were not available.
  • Glassbox will integrate Anodot’s engine into its platform to help businesses monitor and better understand customer behavior.
  • Founded in 2014 and headquartered in Virginia, Anodot made its Finovate debut at FinovateEurope 2022 in London.

Digital experience analytics provider Glassbox announced its acquisition of Anodot, a provider of real-time anomaly detection and business monitoring. Terms of the acquisition were not disclosed.

The integration of Anodot’s engine will enable Glassbox to detect more granular shifts in user behavior in order to spot patterns across digital experiences. This will help the firm identify a range of behaviors that could impact the business, providing early warning of potential customer friction, system underperformance, or conversion declines. These insights will help product, UX, DevOps, and analytics teams make informed decisions and provide them with the built-in workflow integrations they need to accelerate response times.

“As enterprises increasingly rely on digital channels to engage customers, Glassbox has become essential for understanding and shaping customer behavior,” Glassbox CEO Guy Perry said. “By integrating Anodot’s advanced anomaly detection into our platform, we’re enabling customers to automatically uncover and proactively react to even the smallest shifts in user behavior. This acquisition reinforces our commitment to helping our customers deliver exceptional, frictionless digital experiences at scale.”

Glassbox’s acquisition is the first big move for Perry, who joined the company as CEO last month. Perry was previously CEO and president of trade finance software company Surecomp and, before that, held senior leadership roles at NCR Global and Motorola Solutions. In his appointment announcement, Perry underscored Glassbox’s “world-class technology, deep expertise, and truly customer-centric culture” and the firm’s ability to “redefine how organizations turn digital insights into meaningful outcomes.”

Headquartered in London and founded in 2010, Glassbox offers an AI-driven platform that captures, analyzes, and optimizes user interactions across digital channels. The company’s technology helps organizations enhance digital experiences for customers, boost brand loyalty, and improve revenue growth. Glassbox provides 100% user session capture, real-time alerts, and AI-powered insights to help companies detect and resolve customer pain points, ensure accessibility, and fight fraud.

Anodot made its Finovate debut at FinovateEurope 2022 in London. At the conference, the Ashburn, Virginia-based company demonstrated its business monitoring platform that uses AI to continuously monitor and correlate payments activity and business performance. Helping identify revenue-critical issues—from processes that are creating an unacceptable level of customer friction to anomalous behavior that is potentially fraudulent—the platform provides real-time actionable alerts and forecasts to reduce detection time by as much as 80%.

Earlier this year, Anodot announced that it had formed a new business unit, Umbrella, dedicated to the company’s cloud cost management platform. Designed to meet the needs of managed service providers (MSPs) and multi-divisional enterprises, the Umbrella Cloud Cost Management Platform leverages AI and business analytics to give companies visibility into their cloud and software-as-a-service (SaaS) spend.

Photo by Daniel Watson

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Ping Identity Acquires Best of Show Winner Keyless

Ping Identity Acquires Best of Show Winner Keyless
By David Penn Posted on
Categories: Alumni News, Keyless, Mergers & Acquisitions, Ping Identity
  • Digital identity company Ping Identity has agreed to acquire UK-based biometric authentication firm Keyless. Terms of the acquisition were not disclosed.
  • Ping Identity will integrate Keyless’ Zero-Knowledge Biometrics technology into its platform to enable business to enhance their fraud prevention and user verification processes.
  • Ping Identity has been a Finovate alum since its appearance at FinovateEurope 2012. Keyless won Best of Show in its Finovate debut at FinovateEurope 2025.

Digital identity company Ping Identity has agreed to acquire UK-based biometric authentication specialist—and FinovateEurope 2025 Best of Show winner—Keyless. Terms of the acquisition have not been disclosed, and the transaction remains subject to customary closing conditions and regulatory approvals.

“In an era where trust is continuously tested, organizations must deliver digital experiences that are more secure, private, and effortless,” Ping Identity CEO and Founder Andre Durand said. “By joining forces with Keyless, we aim to make privacy-preserving authentication as simple as a glance—building greater confidence into every digital interaction.”

With its Zero-Knowledge Biometrics technology, Keyless separates itself from traditional biometric authentication solutions in a number of ways. Requiring a only single glance at the camera, Keyless’ technology verifies the user’s face and device against enrollment data, leveraging cryptographic techniques that prevent biometric data from being stored in a retrievable form. This prevents the data from being reconstructed and potentially linked back to the original image—whether on the device or in the cloud. Additionally, Keyless does not require a dedicated device, which makes the technology easier to deploy across a range of different environments and user groups.

The technology helps defend users against fraud techniques such as account takeover, providing instant biometric authentication and deepfake detection for frontline and mobile workers with sub-300ms performance benchmarks. Keyless also supports employees with passwordless multi-factor authentication and seamless single sign-on (SSO) for easier, stronger access. The technology is also designed to enhance readiness for a variety of international regulatory compliance standards for privacy including GDPR, CCPA, and PSD3.

“Trust lies at the heart of every digital relationship,” Keyless CEO and Co-Founder Andrea Carmignani said. “This acquisition will help to embed trust throughout the identity journey—from verification to authentication to authorization—and reflects our shared commitment to a more secure, seamless, and private world.”

Per the acquisition, Ping Identity will integrate Keyless’ privacy-preserving biometric authentication into its platform to enable businesses to enhance their fraud prevention and user verification processes without adding friction to the user experience. The acquisition also helps Ping Identity manifest its One Platform vision of providing verified trust across all identities, including customer identity and access management (CIAM) workforce, and B2B use cases. This vision also means delivering secure, passwordless access for frontline, shared terminal, and manufacturing environments.

Headquartered in Denver, Colorado and founded in 2003, Ping Identity first demonstrated its technology at FinovateEurope 2012. Today, the identity verification innovator boasts 99.99% uptime and more than three billion identities under management. The company’s acquisition announcement comes in the wake of a survey it conducted that indicated that while AI use is climbing rapidly, its impact on customer trust has been increasingly problematic. “AI and the rise of agents is compounding the attack on trust, making threats more persuasive and harder to detect, which raises the stakes for identity verification and protection,” Ping Identity VP of Consumer Segment Strategy Darryl Jones said.

Winning Best of Show in its FinovateEurope 2025, Keyless was founded in 2019 and is based in London. The company’s privacy-preserving biometric authentication technology has helped banks, fintechs, crypto platforms, and more reduce account takeover incidents, secure high-risk transactions, and boost operational efficiency. Keyless’ Zero-Knowledge Biometrics solution provides multi-factor authentication with a single glance at the camera, delivering results in 300 milliseconds without storing valuable biometric information.

Last month, Keyless announced that it had been named a “Luminary” in Acuity Market Intelligence’s Biometric Digital Identity Privacy and Compliance Prism Report. In September, Keyless was featured in Gartner’s Emerging Tech Impact Radar: Disinformation Security for its innovations in biometric continuous identity assurance.

Photo by cottonbro studio

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Morgan Stanley Acquires Private Company Trading Platform EquityZen

Morgan Stanley Acquires Private Company Trading Platform EquityZen
By David Penn Posted on
Categories: Alumni News, EquityZen, Mergers & Acquisitions
  • Morgan Stanley has agreed to acquire private company trading platform EquityZen. Terms of the transaction were not immediately available.
  • The acquisition will help Morgan Stanley offer a full suite of solutions for its private company and wealth management clients, including cap table solutions, tender and liquidity programs, direct and co-investment opportunities, and secondary trading.
  • EquityZen made its Finovate debut at FinovateSpring 2016. The company is headquartered in New York.

One of the biggest challenges in the world of private company investing is dealing with the liquidity gap that can arise between private companies and their stakeholders when stakeholders seek access to cash before companies are ready to officially exit via public offering or acquisition. As more and more companies stay private longer, an opportunity has developed for innovators that can not only democratize access to private market investments, but can also serve the interests of employees seeking liquidity, companies requiring control over secondary transactions, and investors wanting access to high-growth private startups.

Tackling this challenge is EquityZen, a New York-based fintech founded in 2013 that made its Finovate debut at FinovateSpring 2016 in San Francisco. This week, we learned Morgan Stanley has announced its acquisition of the company, which offers a proprietary platform that facilitates secondary transactions in private firms, and works directly with shareholders and issuers to provide a seamless experience for buyers, sellers, and companies alike.

“This announcement comes at a critical time in the development of the private markets ecosystem,” Jed Finn, Head of Morgan Stanley Wealth Management, said. “The combination of EquityZen with Morgan Stanley will uniquely address client needs as companies stay private much longer, such as delivering liquidity solutions for their employees and early investors in a seamless yet controlled process of their own design. With EquityZen, we combine our cap table management solutions with a private shares marketplace to deliver end-to-end solutions to our private market company clients.”

EquityZen enables accredited investors to explore investment offerings on its platform, review offering documents, and conduct research before reserving investments in live offerings, or indicating their interest in upcoming offerings. Investors can execute documents and provide payment information in order to complete the investment via ACH or wire, and actively manage their investments and receive personalized updates on their companies in their portfolio. Investors receive investment proceeds in the form of cash or shares if the company exits successfully or simply if the investor requires liquidity.

The acquisition follows news of Morgan Stanley’s expanded partnership with private capital software platform Carta. Morgan Stanley noted that its acquisition of EquityZen will enhance its private markets ecosystem, and enable the firm to offer a range of services to private companies and their shareholders including cap table solutions, tender and liquidity programs, direct and co-investment opportunities, and secondary trading. Morgan Stanley will benefit from EquityZen’s issuer-aligned model, which will help it enhance its relationship with private companies and offer its wealth management customers greater access to private shares.

“Our entire mission has been to bring ‘private markets to the public’ and by integrating into Morgan Stanley, we will reach more investors and shareholders than ever before,” EquityZen CEO Atish Davda said. “When our category-leading technology and welcoming marketplace are matched with Morgan Stanley’s comprehensive suite of products, services, and offerings focused on the private markets, we can create a value proposition together for issuers, shareholders, and investors that is unrivaled in our space.”

EquityZen has 800,000 registered users. To date, the company has processed more than 49,000 transactions across 450+ private companies.

Photo by Pixabay

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Barclays to Acquire Lending Company Best Egg

Barclays to Acquire Lending Company Best Egg
By Julie Muhn (@julieschicktanz) Posted on
Categories: Barclays, Daily news, Mergers & Acquisitions
  • Barclays’ US consumer banking subsidiary, Barclays Bank Delaware, is acquiring Best Egg for $800 million.
  • Barclays aims to use the purchase to diversify its US consumer business and strengthen its presence in unsecured lending.
  • The transaction is expected to close in the second quarter of 2026.

Barclays‘ US consumer banking subsidiary, Barclays Bank Delaware, unveiled plans this week to expand its US footprint, acquiring personal loan origination company Best Egg. The transaction is expected to close in the second quarter of 2026 for $800 million.

Best Egg offers a direct-to-consumer personal loan origination platform that specializes in lending to prime borrowers. Since it was founded in 2013, the Delaware-based company has facilitated over $40 billion in personal loans to more than two million customers. By the end of this year, Best Egg will have facilitated more than $7 billion in personal loan originations.

Best Egg currently services approximately $11 billion in personal loans which are funded through structures such as securitization programs and forward flow arrangements provided by a range of alternative asset managers. The company generates fee-based income from its loan origination and servicing activities.

Best Egg CEO Paul Ricci said the acquisition marks a major milestone in the company’s mission to help consumers achieve financial confidence through modern lending products. “At Best Egg, we are driven by a mission to empower people with financial confidence and flexibility through our suite of lending products and financial health tools,” said Ricci. “Joining forces with Barclays marks a pivotal moment in our journey—one that amplifies our ability to reach even more people through innovative lending solutions that truly make a difference. This transaction is a testament to the strength of the incredible business we’ve built over the past 12 years, our talented team, and the trust we’ve earned from our customers. Together with Barclays, we’re excited to accelerate our growth and continue shaping the future of consumer finance in ways that are both meaningful and impactful.”

Barclays’ US Consumer Bank will leverage Best Egg’s digital and risk capabilities to enhance its credit card business that provides unsecured personal lending to customers by partnering with co-brand card partner programs. Buying Best Egg provides the bank an on-ramp into a well-established lending platform with proven underwriting and distribution capabilities. It also signals Barclays’ intent to diversify beyond credit cards and move into unsecured lending.

Barclays Group Chief Executive C.S. Venkatakrishnan described the acquisition as a key growth opportunity within the bank’s long-term US strategy. “The deep and sophisticated US consumer finance market offers rich prospects for growth at Barclays,” said Venkatakrishnan. “The transaction will strengthen our US Consumer Bank and offers an exciting opportunity to significantly bolster our capabilities in personal lending.”

Once the acquisition is complete, Barclays plans to leverage this same model while retaining a small portion of Best Egg’s new lending flow on its balance sheet.

Denny Nealon, CEO of Barclays US Consumer Bank, said the move supports the company’s broader goal of diversification and scale in US retail banking. “This acquisition represents a significant step forward in our strategy to grow and diversify our US consumer banking business,” said Nealon. “As a leader in the personal loans market, Best Egg gives us the ability to reach more US consumers through a proven platform that has been successful for over a decade. We look forward to welcoming Best Egg’s customers as well as its talented and experienced management team and colleagues upon closing in 2026.”

Photo by YUSUF ARSLAN

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Modern Treasury Acquires Beam to Bring Stablecoins and Fiat Under a Single API

Modern Treasury Acquires Beam to Bring Stablecoins and Fiat Under a Single API
By Julie Muhn (@julieschicktanz) Posted on
Categories: Daily news, Mergers & Acquisitions
  • Modern Treasury announced its first acquisition, purchasing stablecoin and fiat payments company Beam to expand its real-time money movement capabilities.
  • The deal unifies fiat and stablecoin rails under Modern Treasury’s single API and will support RTP, FedNow, ACH, wires, Push-to-Card, and stablecoin payments while streamlining compliance through built-in KYC, KYB, and AML.
  • By combining Beam’s stablecoin technology with Modern Treasury’s scale, the company is positioning itself as a bridge between traditional and blockchain payments.

Payment operations platform Modern Treasury marked its first acquisition today. The San Francisco-based company announced this week it has purchased payments company Beam for an undisclosed amount.

Modern Treasury plans to use Beam, which offers both stablecoin and fiat payments capabilities for customers like Sling Money, to broaden its own money movement platform to include both traditional and stablecoin settlement rails.

Beam was founded in 2022 and has since processed more than $350 million in payments across the globe that have enabled small and medium-sized businesses to manage their cross-border operations. The company has raised $7 million and is backed by investors including Archetype, Castle Island Ventures, Arca, A*, and Soma.

“Instant payments and stablecoins are the future of money movement,” said Modern Treasury Co-founder and CEO Matt Marcus. “Beam has proven traction delivering real-time payments for stablecoin-native payment flows. Modern Treasury has processed hundreds of billions of dollars on our platform. Together, we’re creating the best infrastructure to move money instantly—without the delays and limitations of banks or card-first payment providers.”

Modern Treasury will support real-time payments via stablecoins, Push-to-Card, and traditional rails like RTP, FedNow, ACH, and wires. The company simplifies the application with its single API that handles compliance elements such as KYC, KYB, and AML, which allows it to replace six months of onboarding and compliance work with just a few API calls.

“Beam was founded on the belief that stablecoins can play a major role in the future of payments, but to make that real, you need scale, regulatory strength, and trusted infrastructure,” said Beam Founder and CEO Dan Mottice. “By joining forces, we’re accelerating that vision. Beam’s stablecoin and fiat orchestration capabilities will be woven directly into Modern Treasury’s platform to unlock instant pay-ins and payouts, FX efficiency, and next-generation liquidity management, all within a trusted enterprise-grade system.”

Mottice, who previously led Visa’s crypto settlement products and Visa Direct Payouts, is joining Modern Treasury as Head of Beam as part of today’s deal.

Modern Treasury’s acquisition of Beam is a great example of how stablecoins are not only becoming mainstream, but they are also becoming a key way for organizations to differentiate themselves in the enterprise payments space.

As stablecoins gain regulatory clarity and businesses demand faster, always-on settlement, Modern Treasury is positioning itself as the connective tissue between fiat and blockchain rails. Because it brings both traditional and stablecoin payments under one API and compliance framework, Modern Treasury sets itself apart in the crowded global money movement space.

Photo by Maximilian Orlowsky

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TrueLayer to Acquire Pay-by-Bank Fintech Zimpler

TrueLayer to Acquire Pay-by-Bank Fintech Zimpler
By Julie Muhn (@julieschicktanz) Posted on
Categories: Daily news, Mergers & Acquisitions
  • TrueLayer plans to acquire Sweden-based Zimpler, expanding its footprint in the Nordics and strengthening its position in Europe’s growing pay-by-bank sector.
  • The deal combines TrueLayer’s European network with Zimpler’s Nordic expertise and Swish integration, creating a strong alternative to traditional card payments.
  • The acquisition highlights the rise of account-to-account payments in the debt-averse Nordic region, where pay-by-bank adoption already leads the world.

UK open banking platform TrueLayer unveiled today that it will acquire Sweden-based pay-by-bank company Zimpler. The financial terms of the deal were undisclosed.

TrueLayer will leverage Zimpler’s strong standing in the Nordic market to expand its network and expertise. The purchase will support TrueLayer’s mission to build a payments alternative in Europe, which will in turn create competition and increase value for customers.

“We’re not just expanding our footprint in the Nordics—we’re combining talent, technology, and scale to accelerate Pay by Bank adoption across the continent,” said TrueLayer Co-Founder and CEO Francesco Simoneschi.

Zimpler was founded in 2012 with a mission to democratize payments and enable growth for businesses across industries and markets. The company connects businesses with over 350 million customer bank accounts across more than 25 markets.

“Joining forces with TrueLayer is a fantastic opportunity to build the leading Pay by Bank provider in Europe,” said Zimpler CEO Johan Strand. “TrueLayer has a proven track record of innovation and a powerful network. Our combined strengths will allow us to offer an even more compelling proposition to the market. Joining TrueLayer will enable us to reach new heights and drive the next wave of growth in the industry. At the same time, we remain firmly anchored in Sweden, with our local license and expertise ensuring continuity for our customers.”

Europe, specifically the Nordic region, has some of the highest adoption rates of account-to-account payments in the world. The debt-averse culture of the Nordics leads to low credit card usage. Only around 35% to 45% of Swedish adults have an active credit card. Because of this, pay-by-bank is widely adopted and accepted.

By acquiring Zimpler, TrueLayer will strengthen its pan-European network to more than 20 million users and will add coverage across key markets such as Sweden, Finland, and will add A2A capabilities through the Swish payment rail integration. This significantly strengthens TrueLayer’s pan-European network, accelerating the shift to smarter, safer, and more cost-effective payments.

TrueLayer’s acquisition of Zimpler consolidates pay-by-bank in Europe. As open banking matures, scale and network coverage are two key differentiators. Combining TrueLayer’s European reach with Zimpler’s Nordic expertise, plus its connectivity to Swedish mobile banking app Swish, the partnership creates a strong alternative to traditional card networks.

“I am excited to welcome the Zimpler team to TrueLayer,” said Simoneschi. “We’ve long admired their progress, and we’re excited to add such an incredible group of builders and payment experts to the TrueLayer team. We’re not just expanding our footprint in the Nordics—we’re combining talent, technology, and scale to accelerate Pay by Bank adoption across the continent, and further strengthening Pay by Bank as a force of disruption that is changing how the world pays.”

Photo by Robert Bye on Unsplash

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Payments Optimization Meets Fraud Prevention: Spreedly Acquires Dodgeball

Payments Optimization Meets Fraud Prevention: Spreedly Acquires Dodgeball
By David Penn Posted on
Categories: Alumni News, Mergers & Acquisitions, Spreedly
  • Payments optimization platform Spreedly has acquired fraud prevention company Dodgeball. Terms were not disclosed.
  • The acquisition will combine payments optimization and fraud prevention into a single platform.
  • Founded in 2008 and headquartered in North Carolina, Spreedly has been a Finovate alum since 2013.

Open payments platform Spreedly announced its acquisition of fraud orchestration company Dodgeball. Terms of the transaction were not disclosed. The acquisition combines payments optimization and fraud prevention in a single platform and helps bolster Spreedly’s strategy for both AI and open payments.

“For most merchants, payments and fraud aren’t separate challenges—they’re two sides of the same coin,” Spreedly CEO Justin Benson said. “You can’t optimize payments without addressing fraud, and you can’t fight fraud without understanding the payment flow. This acquisition brings these critical functions together, allowing us to deliver immense value to our customers and accelerate our vision for an AI-powered, open payments future.”

The acquisition is designed to give Spreedly’s customers additional reliability, as well as insights to help eliminate fraud and make more intelligent e-commerce decisions. The company noted that the acquisition will also enhance Spreedly’s workflow engine and help build the foundation for an AI-powered payments copilot. Post acquisition, the Dodgeball brand, as well as the Dodgeball team, will be integrated into Spreedly. This will not only enable Spreedly to maximize the benefit of Dodgeball’s expertise, but will also help ensure a smooth transition for customers with no service interruption and complete access to Spreedly’s global support and account management teams.

“We leapt at the opportunity to join forces with Spreedly, in order to help more merchants build best-of-breed fraud management solutions while still promoting growth,” Dodgeball CEO Adam Hiatt said. “The partnership will also help us provide much greater value to our existing customers. All of us at Dodgeball are excited to get started on integrating our offering with Spreedly’s.”

Most recently having demoing its technology on the Finovate stage at FinovateFall 2018 in New York, Spreedly has been a Finovate alum since 2013. The company, founded in 2008 and headquartered in Durham, North Carolina, counts major brands such as BMW, HBO Max, Priceline, The New York Times, and others among those that use its payments technology. Spreedly processes more than $50 billion in gross merchandise value (GMV) on behalf of more than 400 customers in 100+ countries.

Spreedly’s acquisition announcement came shortly before the company released its State of Checkout 2025 Survey, conducted by Talker Research on Spreedly’s behalf. The survey noted that many US executives remain concerned that AI could bring greater complexity to what they consider to be fragile checkout flows, leading to greater challenges and even financial losses.

“AI has incredible potential to transform payments,” Spreedly President Peter Dougherty said. “But executives in the survey also revealed they’re already paying a steep ‘engineering tax’—with as much as a quarter of their engineering teams dedicated to maintaining fragile checkout flows. AI should be layered thoughtfully to strengthen these payment systems, not replace them entirely and introduce new risks.”

Photo by Colin Rowley on Unsplash

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Coupa Acquires Supplier Discovery Platform Scoutbee

Coupa Acquires Supplier Discovery Platform Scoutbee
By Julie Muhn (@julieschicktanz) Posted on
Categories: Daily news, Mergers & Acquisitions
  • Coupa has acquired AI-powered supplier discovery platform Scoutbee to enhance transparency and efficiency in supplier sourcing, onboarding, and transactions.
  • The move expands Coupa’s procurement ecosystem, adding Scoutbee’s collaborative tools and AI-driven supplier intelligence to Coupa’s $8 trillion spend management platform.
  • As competition in AI-enabled procurement heats up, Coupa’s acquisition positions it to better compete with SAP’s Ariba and JAGGAER in building a dynamic, resilient global supply chain network.

Spend management platform Coupa revealed today that it has acquired supplier discovery platform Scoutbee for an undisclosed amount.

Coupa anticipates that integrating Scoutbee’s tools into its platform will offer business clients greater transparency and efficiency in supplier discovery, onboarding, and transactions.

Scoutbee was founded in 2015 to connect buyers and suppliers through its AI-powered procurement platform, which includes a robust supplier database and collaboration tools. The California-based company has raised $76 million in funding to help organizations discover new, relevant suppliers and unlock new opportunities.

“We founded Scoutbee with the premise that AI can transform real-time sourcing and procurement by enabling buyers and suppliers to seamlessly connect, collaborate, and transact,” said Scoutbee co-founder and CEO Gregor Stühler. “Joining Coupa allows us to bring our mission to a global stage, and provide an exceptionally data-rich and comprehensive buyer-supplier network and B2B marketplace at scale.”

Coupa launched its AI platform for total spend management in 2006. The company’s platform contains a community-generated, $8 trillion dataset and brings autonomous AI agents, 10 million buyers and suppliers, and apps to automate the buying process. In 2022, Coupa was acquired by Thoma Bravo for $8 billion in cash.

“Coupa and Scoutbee share a fundamental belief that better data leads to better AI, better decisions, and ultimately, a better world through more resilient supply chains,” said Coupa Chief Product and Technology Officer Salvatore Lombardo. “Together, we are creating the world’s most comprehensive, dynamic, and data-rich network. This acquisition enables us to deliver a truly effortless buyer-supplier matching experience and further enhances our network that will power the future of global trade.”

Bringing Coupa and Scoutbee together under a united front will help fortify Coupa’s position in the race to dominate the AI-powered procurement and supplier intelligence space. With rivals like SAP’s Ariba Network doubling down on AI-enabled sourcing and JAGGAER investing heavily in autonomous commerce, Coupa’s move will deepen its supplier intelligence capabilities, reinforcing its position as a data-rich, network-first procurement ecosystem.

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From Demo to Deal: FinovateEurope Alumni Turn Innovation into Acquisition

From Demo to Deal: FinovateEurope Alumni Turn Innovation into Acquisition
By Julie Muhn (@julieschicktanz) Posted on
Categories: Finovate Marketing, FinovateEurope 2026, Mergers & Acquisitions

Each year, FinovateEurope brings together the brightest innovators in fintech to demo the future of financial technology. But for many companies, demoing their technology on the Finovate stage is more than just a moment in the spotlight, it’s a launching pad for growth.

Over the past 15 years, dozens of FinovateEurope alumni have captured the attention of major industry players, leading to high-profile acquisitions and partnerships. Below, we highlight some of the companies that turned their Finovate demo into their next big deal.

These success stories underscore how FinovateEurope has helped fintechs showcase their newest fintech innovation and connect it with the institutions and investors ready to scale it. From early-stage disruptors to industry leaders, the companies that have taken the Finovate stage prove that a seven-minute demo can spark partnerships, acquisitions, and growth.

As we look ahead to FinovateEurope 2026, we’ve already started to help the newest wave of fintechs prepare to take the spotlight. If the past 15 years are any indication, the ideas you will see on stage next February could be the ones reshaping fintech in the years to come.

Join us for FinovateEurope 2026 on February 10 through 11 in London. Tickets are available today at a discount, so register today and save!

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FIS Acquires Digital Banking and Lending Fintech Amount

FIS Acquires Digital Banking and Lending Fintech Amount
By Julie Muhn (@julieschicktanz) Posted on
Categories: Daily news, FIS, Mergers & Acquisitions
  • FIS has acquired Chicago-based Amount, adding the fintech’s digital banking and lending SaaS platform to its portfolio; terms of the deal were not disclosed.
  • The acquisition strengthens FIS’s digital banking strategy, enabling banks, lenders, and credit unions to streamline account origination, lending, deposits, cards, and fraud prevention.
  • Amount brings 158 employees and a fintech growth story marked by unicorn status, layoffs, and $313 million raised.

Fintech giant FIS has finalized the acquisition of digital banking and lending SaaS platform Amount. The financial terms of the deal were undisclosed.

“After years of successful partnership, we are thrilled to welcome Amount’s talented team and innovative capabilities to FIS,” said FIS CEO and President Stephanie Ferris.

Founded in 2019 and spun out of online lending company Avant a year later, Chicago-based Amount helps banks offer unified digital banking origination and decisioning experiences across lending, cards and deposits. The company’s solution offers embedded AI functionality to simplify the online account opening experience for banks, lenders and credit unions.

FIS anticipates that adding Amount will help it strategically expand its solutions portfolio. Specifically, the Florida-based company will leverage Amount to empower financial institutions to boost efficiency, streamline lending, improve customer service, simplify account opening while reducing fraud, and optimize credit card issuance and payments. The deal will offer FIS’ bank clients the ability to provide a more unified and seamless digital account opening process for the retail and commercial clients.

“Our strategy and investments have positioned FIS to lead the next generation of banking solutions, enabling financial institutions to thrive in today’s digital-first world with confidence, innovation and reliability. The Amount platform, integrated into FIS digital, core banking and card systems, will help FIS clients grow deposits, loans and card portfolios efficiently and securely,” added Ferris.

Established in 1968 and based in Florida, FIS serves 15,000 clients across the globe. The company’s product suite includes payment solutions, risk management services, and customer communication tools. Its technology supports the processing of $50 trillion in transactions annually and oversees assets totaling $16 trillion.

“Joining forces with FIS marks an exciting new chapter for Amount,” said Amount CEO Adam Hughes. “FIS provides global scale, robust infrastructure, and regulatory expertise that will allow us to strengthen our market offering and deliver seamless, innovative customer experiences and accelerate digital transformation. Becoming part of the FIS organization will create a unique asset and the industry’s most comprehensive digital banking platform.”

Logistically, all of Amount’s 158 employees have joined FIS and the fintech will maintain its headquarters in Chicago.

Today’s agreement comes after a roller coaster ride for Amount. After it began operating independently in 2020, the fintech went on to raise $81 million with a $1 billion valuation and later acquired small business lending platform Linear for $175 million. In June 2022, however, as fintech began to slump, Amount had to cut 18% of its workforce and later that year had to lay off another quarter of its workforce. The company picked things up again last year when it raised another $30 million, bringing its total raised to $313 million. The company’s updated valuation is unknown.

FIS’s move to acquire Amount is yet another example of how established fintechs are leveraging incumbents to meet demand for secure and seamless digital experiences. As competition heats up in the US and beyond, the acquisition will ultimately help FIS strengthen its leadership in end-to-end digital banking.

Photo by Vitaly Gariev on Unsplash

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Gusto To Acquire Retirement Specialist Guideline

Gusto To Acquire Retirement Specialist Guideline
By Julie Muhn (@julieschicktanz) Posted on
Categories: Alumni News, Daily news, Gusto, Mergers & Acquisitions
  • Payroll and HR platform Gusto plans to acquire retirement plan provider Guideline, expanding its small business benefits offerings.
  • While terms of the deal were not disclosed, Guideline was valued at $1.15 billion in 2021, and given that fintech valuations have compressed by around 26%, is estimated to be worth around $851 million today.
  • The combined companies aim to simplify retirement plan access for tens of thousands of small businesses, especially as states increasingly mandate employer-sponsored retirement options.

Payroll, benefits, and HR management solutions company Gusto unveiled plans to acquire retirement plan provider Guideline.

While financial terms of the agreement were not disclosed, Guideline had a $1.15 billion valuation in 2021 and claimed an annualized revenue of $140 million as of January 2025. Generally speaking, fintech valuations have been compressed by about 26% on average since 2021, so it is roughly estimated to be valued at $851 million today.

Gusto, originally known as ZenPayroll, was founded in 2011 to provide a cloud-based payroll, benefits, and HR management solution. The company’s tools help businesses track time and attendance, onboard new employees, manage existing talent, and more. In 2015, Gusto added to its small business offerings by offering health insurance and workers’ compensation, and a year later launched 401(k) retirement plans via a partnership with Guideline. Today, the San Francisco-based company serves more than 400,000 small businesses and is now valued at $9.3 billion.

Founded in 2015, Guideline helps businesses offer 401(k) and IRA retirement benefits to their team in a simplified approach. The California-based company works with small-to-mid-size businesses, franchises, and self-employed individuals across multiple industries, with dentist offices being the top category.

While Guideline has a direct-to-business approach, it also offers its plans via distribution partnerships with ADP, Block, Intuit, Paylocity, TriNet, and Rippling—all competitors of Gusto. Interestingly, Guideline plans to maintain integrations with those partners even after the acquisition closes.

Together, the two will serve tens of thousands of small businesses, offering them an integrated approach to adding retirement benefits, no matter the size of their team. Today’s deal will help Gusto serve its customers with more of Guideline’s services without having to worry about revenue sharing.

“We’re going to have the ability, in the right moment at the right time, to help [small business customers] if they want. It’s never going to be something they have to do—it’s always their choice—but help them understand that they can actually go provide retirement benefits to their team,” said Gusto CEO and Co-Founder Josh Reeves. “And so one thing I’m really, really excited about is I think we’re going to have a chance to help a lot more companies with retirement benefits by being together than if we had stayed separate.”

The acquisition is especially salient for Gusto, given that some states have passed mandates that now require businesses to provide their employees with retirement plans. The move also helps Gusto differentiate itself from competitors like ADP and Paychex by owning more of the retirement infrastructure directly, rather than relying solely on partnerships. In doing so, Gusto is strengthening its full-service appeal as the go-to HR and benefits provider for small businesses.

Photo by MART PRODUCTION

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Electronic Payments Acquires Handpoint

Electronic Payments Acquires Handpoint
By Julie Muhn (@julieschicktanz) Posted on
Categories: Alumni News, Daily news, Handpoint, Mergers & Acquisitions
  • Electronic Payments is acquiring Handpoint to expand into Europe, gaining offices in the UK, Iceland, and Spain.
  • Handpoint’s tools include mobile payment acceptance, an embedded payments platform, a card-present gateway, and real-time transaction reporting.
  • The deal strengthens Electronic Payments’ mobile and embedded offerings, helping it compete with newer players like Stripe and Square.

New York-based Electronic Payments has agreed to acquire UK-based Handpoint for an undisclosed amount.

Handpoint was founded in 1999 to provide in-person payments tools. The company helps its customers accept payments on smartphones, tablets, and handhelds, and enables merchants to accept card payments securely. In addition to hardware, Handpoint also offers an embedded payments platform, a card-present gateway, and provides real-time transaction data that gives merchants in-depth reporting. Before today’s announcement, Handpoint had raised a total of $8 million, most recently pulling in $2.4 million in 2021.

Handpoint demoed at FinovateFall 2012 and FinovateEurope 2012, at the height of the mobile payment acceptance wave that Block (then Square) kicked off in 2010.

Electronic Payments was founded in 1998 and offers a network of POS value-added resellers (VARs), agent banks, sales agents, and independent sales offices (ISOs) to businesses across multiple industries. Among the company’s products are Cygma, a full-stack authorization and clearing platform; Exatouch, a full-featured point-of-sale device; and ProCharge Gateway, a virtual terminal that helps process and manage payments from one central location.

Handpoint will give Electronic Payments an immediate European presence, as Handpoint maintains offices in the UK, Iceland, and Spain, new territories for Electronic Payments. Integrating Handpoint’s tools could allow US merchants that require cross-border capabilities to tap into a single payments partner on both sides of the Atlantic. Additionally, Electronic Payments could integrate Handpoint’s embedded payments platform with its Cygma clearing system, which would facilitate a more omnichannel approach.

Purchasing Handpoint will also help Electronic Payments strengthen its mobile and embedded payments offerings. This will help it compete with the self-service model that new players, like Stripe and Square, offer.

Photo by Ivan Samkov

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