Fintech M&A reopens around payments infrastructure, not consumer apps
The acquirers want pipes.
Finance Reporter
Contactless payment and retail checkout
NEW YORK — The first fintech boom sold brands. The second is buying licenses, settlement connectivity, and the unglamorous right to sit on a payment rail. Bank and processor acquirers said they will pay for infrastructure and they will not pay for a growth story that is mostly customer-acquisition cost.
That preference is already visible in the deals that clear. Targets with bank charters, money-transmitter coverage, or issuer-processor contracts are in process. Wallet apps with a celebrity seed round are not.
For venture backers, this is a sorting. The companies that became utilities will exit. The companies that became advertisements will raise at a discount or not at all.
Priya Nair
Finance Reporter
Writes on banks, private credit, and the regulatory perimeter around nonbank lenders.
