Three fintech mega-deals totalling USD87 billion set the scene for a record-breaking USD120 billion in disclosed transaction value for the sector in a ‘white-hot’ first half of 2019, according to Hampleton Partners’ latest global Fintech M&A Market Report.
Hampleton Partners, which specialises in international technology M&A and corporate finance, noted that all three of the top transactions were in the payments processing segment: Fidelity National Information Services acquired Worldpay for USD43.6 billion; Fiserv acquired First Data for USD22 billion and Global Payments acquired Total System Services for USD21.2 billion.
Hampleton’s report pointed to a revitalised M&A market since the slump in H2 2018, as well as an overall trend for larger deal sizes: 65 per cent of deals exceeded USD100 million in H1 2019, compared to only 54 per cent in 2018 (disclosed deal values).
Jonathan Simnett, director and fintech specialist, Hampleton Partners, says: “The fintech M&A market is white-hot in Europe and North America. Financial businesses and institutions are increasingly open to adopting large-scale fintech in transaction processing or enterprise financial software, and as the financial services industry re-structures, competition for game-changing assets is increasing.”
Fundraising in fintech continues its record-breaking course. With 818 fundraises so far in 2019, the anticipated annualised figure of 1,636 would set a new annual record, narrowly beating those figures recorded in 2017 (1,632) and in 2016 (1,633). Furthermore, excluding the Ant Financial deal of June 2018, Q2 2019 recorded the most fintech fundraising ever with USD10.9 billion raised.
All this confirms that, while they seem to be gradually multiplying in number, fintech funding rounds in North America and Europe are becoming larger. However, Asia is not currently sharing the same level of fundraising success, with fundraise count and value stagnating.
Excluding the three mega-deals in payments processing, enterprise financial software remained the largest fintech sub-sector, with over 75 per cent of remaining disclosed deal value and just under 50 per cent of all deal volume – 98 deals.
Significant deals in enterprise financial software included Thoma Bravo’s acquisition of Ellie Mae, a provider of mortgage loan origination, for USD3.7 billion, making it the fourth largest transaction of 1H2019, at 7.5x EV/S.
As challengers use their agility to attract new customers, legacy players are forced to acquire the necessary technology to compete. Investors and acquirers will tend towards targets that focus on automation via disruptive technology, such as real-time payment processing technology; AI chatbots (expected to save banks USD7.3 billion annually by 2023); and mobile banking, as in-person branch visits are set to fall 36 per cent between 2017 and 2021.
Challenger banks like Chime, OakNorth or N26 will also continue to grow, whilst regtech is on the rise, allowing firms to stay compliant through cloud-based platforms and machine learning.
Meanwhile, blockchain utilisation continues to spread through collaborative platforms like Bitpay with Visa.
Simnett says: “The heat is being applied to fundraising, auguring well for future large-scale fintech exits. 2Q2019 proved to be the largest quarter ever for fintech fundraising, with Europe already exceeding its 2018 annual record. As Europe and North America power ahead of the currently moribund Asian fintech fundraising market, we expect this to yield several large-scale fintech M&A transactions in the future.”
