This is less of a story but more of a question. While going through the news of the past two weeks, I came across two fintech news stories—yes, fintech and not embedded finance. Firstly, UK-based early wage payout provider Wagestream takes over Keebo, a credit builder and card offering. Secondly, Spanish HR provider Factorial acquires Fuell, a corporate expense management provider. Additionally, you have probably heard of various stories of local fintech companies closing down due to lack of funding or general market condition.
So, if a) some early-stage companies are struggling; b) bigger companies are extending their product offering through acquisitions; and c) embedded finance is happening, then I am wondering if we will see non-financial brands acquiring fintech startups. In a past edition, I had already covered Pandadoc’s move to acquire Berlin-based payment startup Denario. Pandadoc empowers sales teams to create proposals and close them via an e-signature solution. Integrating a payment solution into the workflow seems logical, and the US tech company has likely already worked on this before crossing paths with Denario. With such an acquisition, Pandadoc gets not just the technology but likely also a whole team with all the necessary key people to build a fintech product. The exact details of Pandadoc and Denario are secondary, as I am just using them as an example. But I believe Pandadoc will be able to launch their envisioned payment product much faster and perhaps even with less investment required compared to building everything from the ground up (incl. hiring).
Therefore, I am curious if we will see more of such acquisitions. I would assume that fintech companies in the pre-seed and seed stage are most likely the targets, as such acquisitions will always have a flavor of aqui-hiring. Since it will be hard to find such stories around the globe, I wanted to ask you two questions: a) Do you think this will happen? b) Please share acquisition stories with me that you come across that fit this rationale.
