Daily Fintech Newsletter | Mar. 8th
Hi!
In case you missed it, please see below today's most relevant fintech news.
It’s not entirely clear why SPACs have become so popular over the past year. One explanation is that founders, VCs, and angel investors have become impatient: IPOs were long seen to be too scarce, too costly, and happening too late in a company’s life. Maybe there’s just too much capital to deploy and not enough return-generating assets in which to deploy it, with a growing appetite from investors for tech companies. In any case, where is Europe in this craze? If SPACs are a more convenient replacement for IPOs, then Europe should have been racing ahead in embracing them. The fragmented structure of the continent’s stock markets already makes them less of a good fit for the traditional IPO process. The current enthusiasm might not last, though. Three adverse trends could contribute to curbing it. Read more here.
After founding my own startup and spending a few years working with startups I’ve seen a lot of mistakes that founders usually make. Unfortunately, these scenarios are more common than we’d like to think. Here is my roundup of the most common mistakes and how to avoid them. Link here.
Home-insurance technology upstart Hippo Insurance is teaming with a special-purpose acquisition company to go public, the latest insuretech business to tap equity markets and challenge traditional insurers head-on. Link here.
Cardlytics announced its planned acquisition of Dosh for $275 million in cash and stock. Founded in 2016 by Ryan Wuerch, the company grew quickly. Link here.
nextmarkets AG, a neobroker founded by two brothers from Cologne, has raised $30m to expand its trading platform to more countries around Europe. The Series B round was led by previous investors Alan Howard and Christian Angermayer, while Peter Thiel was also an early investor. Link here.
Mastercard completed its acquisition of the majority of the Corporate Services business of Nets Group, a leading European PayTech company, having met the conditions set out by the European Commission in its approval in August 2020. Link here.
This ends my Daily Fintech Newsletter. Let me know if there are any questions or news/insights worth mentioning in the next newsletter. Until the next!
Regards,
Marcel van Oost
marcelvanoost.com
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