Fintech start-ups acquired by banks – CB Insights

Written by FinTech Futures
15th February 2018

The largest US banks have acquired only 18 fintech startups since 2013, according to CB Insights‘ research, but activity in the last five months has started picking up.

In total, 2017 saw more acquisitions by top US banks than any other year, CB Insights has found. Since September 2017, there have been six fintech acquisitions made by five different banks. Four of those banks, namely JPMorgan, BNP Paribas, Credit Suisse and TD Bank, made their first fintech acquisitions of the time period (2013-2018) in 2017.

As more banks look to build out their own fintech products, more fintech M&A or acqui-hires could follow, CB Insights predicts.

Source: CB Insights

Highlights:

BBVA has been the most active acquirer of fintech start-ups in the last five years, focusing in the online banking, payment and real estate valuation sectors. Of BBVA’s four acquisitions, three are located outside of the US: Madiva Soluciones in Spain, Holvi in Finland, and Openpay in Mexico.

Goldman Sachs has been ramping up its consumer loan business. Most recently, Goldman Sachs’ merchant banking division took a majority stake in FinanceIt, a POS lending startup that allows contractors to offer financing to customers, while its Marcus division acquired the team behind credit card start-up Final to bolster their credit talent. The bank is also reportedly close to acquiring personal finance management (PFM) start-up Clarity Money.

BNP Paribas acquired its first fintechs in 2017. In April, BNP Paribas purchased Compte-Nickel, an online bank, and followed that up in September by taking a majority stake in Gambit, a robo-advisor.

JP Morgan Chase acquired two payments start-ups in 2017; one of these was WePay. This aligns with the organisational goal of scaling Chase Pay, the bank’s payments solution.