While 2021 was a record year for fintech merger and acquisition (M&A) activity, 2022 is off to a great start.
According to FT Partners, there were 1,485 M&A deals in the fintech space totaling $348.5 billion in 2021. As Square’s $29 billion takeover of Afterpay demonstrated, last year’s massive volume is partially thanks to multiple large deals.
This quarter, only eight of the 21 deals initiated disclosed financial details. Of those, the deal volume added up to almost $5 billion.
January
- UBS to acquire Wealthfront
$1.4 billion - Plaid buys Cognito
$250 million - Tandem Bank purchases Oplo
Financial terms not disclosed - BeSmartee acquires FlashSpread
Financial terms not disclosed - Hazel acquires Even and ONE
Financial terms not disclosed - SAP buys Taulia
Financial terms not disclosed
February
- Zip to buy Sezzle
$355 million - Revolut acquires Arvog Forex
Financial terms not disclosed - Madison Dearborn buys MoneyGram
$1.8 billion - Trulioo purchases HelloFlow
Financial terms not disclosed - Fiserv to acquire Finxact
$650 million - Amount buys Linear Financial Technologies
$175 million - FIS purchases Payrix
Financial terms not disclosed
March
- Mitek acquires HooYu
$129 million - Goldman Sachs purchases NextCapital
Financial terms not disclosed - Papaya Global buys Azimo
Financial terms not disclosed - Alkami agrees to acquire Segmint
$135.5 million - PPRO acquires Alpha Fintech
Financial terms not disclosed - Avast to acquire SecureKey Technologies
Financial terms not disclosed - MeridianLink acquires StreetShares
Financial terms not disclosed - Shift4 buys Finaro and The Giving Block
Financial terms not disclosed
While experts predict that 2022 M&A activity will likely see momentum from 2021, there are two aspects to watch out for this year. First, we will not see as many SPACs as we saw last year. This may decrease the number of companies choosing to exit this year. Second, fintech valuations are deflating after experiencing huge rises over the course of the past two years. While the loss in value won’t directly impact the number of M&A deals, it will decrease the deal volume.