M&A Update: Affirm Will Buy Sweep, mPOS Firms Merge, Global Closes Heartland Deal
Payments M&A activity is continuing apace. Affirm, an online lending company that enables shoppers to make monthly payments for purchases, is buying Sweep, a 2-year-old company that operates a personal finance management app. Affirm did not say how much it will pay for Sweep.
Affirm says the deal will enable it to expand beyond “point-of-sale financing.” Sweep co-founders Jackson Gates and Asi Behar and most of the company’s engineers will join Affirm after the deal closes. Sweep will close down its app on May 26 in advance of a launch under the Affirm brand.
In other M&A news, m-POS firms Payleven and SumUP have inked a merger agreement. Both companies launched in Europe in 2012 and will, after the merger, operate as SumUP. The combined companies will have customers from 15 counties and annual revenue of approximately $1.13 billion, they said. The two firms sell gear and technology that enable contactless and card payments via smartphones. The deal comes shortly after Payleven raised $10 million in new funding. Last year, SumUp raised about $11.3 million in capital.
And finally, Global Payments this week says it has completed its $4.3 billion merger of Heartland Payment Systems. The merchant acquirer processing company, which post-merger is called Global Payments, employs some 8,500 workers around the world and serves 2.5 million merchants. The deal gives Global Payments access to such verticals as fuel retailers, colleges and hospitality. Less than 5 percent of payments volume in Global Payments’ integrated payments division comes from those verticals, Global Payments’ management said late last year.
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