NYCE Research

How Fintech Acquisitions Work

A look at recent comparable transactions, what buyers actually pay for, and how the M&A process unfolds from letter of intent to close.

The Market: Fintech M&A in 2024–2025

Fintech acquisition activity hit $37.6 billion across 180 deals in H1 2025 alone — a 15% increase year-over-year. Strategic acquirers accounted for 85% of transactions, with private equity comprising 30% of deal volume backed by $3.6 trillion in global deployable capital.

The most active subsectors: payments (40%), wealthtech (25%), and regtech (15%). The majority of deals fell under $300 million — incremental, strategic acquisitions where a buyer is purchasing a specific capability, audience, or distribution channel they can't build faster than they can buy.

$37.6B

H1 2025 fintech M&A volume

85%

Strategic (not financial) buyers

4.7x

Avg. EV/Revenue multiple, H1 2025

Sources: KPMG Pulse of Fintech H1 2025; Capstone Partners Financial Technology M&A Update, June 2025; Windsor Drake Fintech Acquisitions Tracker, Sept 2025.

Comparable Transactions

Below are recent fintech acquisitions where either the buyer, the target, or both are names you already know. These illustrate what major companies pay — and why.

Target	Buyer	Price	Year	What They Bought
Bridge	Stripe	$1.1B	2024	Stablecoin infrastructure. ~$12M revenue. ~90x revenue multiple. Stripe paid for what would take years to build.
Paystack	Stripe	$200M+	2020	African payments distribution. Stripe couldn't build a Nigerian user base from San Francisco — so they bought one.
Bitstamp	Robinhood	$200M	2024	European crypto exchange + regulatory licenses. Instant access to a market Robinhood hadn't cracked.
Webull	SPAC / Nasdaq	$7.3B EV	2024	Retail brokerage. 20M registered users, 4.3M funded accounts. Valued on the network, not the tech.
Discover	Capital One	$35.3B	2024	100M+ customer relationships + payments network. The biggest fintech deal of the year.

Sources: CNBC, TechCrunch, Yahoo Finance, Architect Partners. All amounts USD.

What Stands Out

The deals that command outsized multiples share a common thread: the buyer is purchasing something they cannot build. Stripe paid ~90x revenue for Bridge — not because the revenue justified it, but because Bridge's infrastructure would take years to replicate. They paid $200M+ for Paystack because you can't build a Nigerian user base from San Francisco. Robinhood paid $200M for Bitstamp because European regulatory licenses aren't something you can rush. Capital One paid $35.3B for Discover because 100 million trusted customer relationships don't appear overnight.

In every case, the premium wasn't for the technology. It was for the network, the distribution, or the access.

Key pattern: Buyers pay premium multiples for three things — distribution they can't build, regulatory access they can't fast-track, and engaged user bases they can't acquire cheaply. Technology alone rarely commands outsized prices. The network does.

What Buyers Actually Pay For

In fintech M&A, the purchase price reflects a combination of quantifiable assets and strategic value that's harder to measure but often drives the premium:

Quantifiable

Revenue and revenue growth rate — recurring revenue commands higher multiples (avg. 4.7x EV/Revenue in H1 2025)
Funded accounts and active users — each transacting user carries implied enterprise value (see our MTU analysis)
Assets under management/administration — AUM scales with the platform
Customer acquisition cost (CAC) — low-CAC distribution is rare and valuable

Strategic (Premium Drivers)

Distribution network — access to a community or audience the buyer can't reach organically
Geographic access — presence in markets (Africa, Middle East, Southeast Asia) where demand outpaces infrastructure
Regulatory positioning — licenses, compliance frameworks, or established operations in regulated markets
Deal pipeline — proprietary or exclusive access to investment opportunities
Brand and trust — an audience that already trusts the platform, reducing conversion friction for the acquirer

NYCE's position: NYCE's core asset is a 2.5M+ retail distribution network across Africa, Asia, and the Middle East — built on a knowledge and content moat, not a media budget. Combined with an exclusive deal pipeline, $200M+ in AUM, and a $0.03 customer acquisition cost, the value proposition is clear: acquire the retail layer, not just the technology.

How the Process Works

A typical fintech acquisition — from first conversation to close — takes 6 to 12 months. Smaller strategic deals can close faster. Here's the general sequence:

Phase 1: Positioning Months 1–2
Prepare materials. Build the data room. Identify and approach potential buyers. Generate inbound interest. The goal is multiple parties at the table simultaneously.
Phase 2: Indication of Interest (IOI) Months 2–3
Interested parties submit non-binding indications of interest — a preliminary price range and deal structure. This is where competition between buyers begins to surface.
Phase 3: Due Diligence Months 3–5
Selected parties receive access to the data room. They examine financials, legal matters, technology, user metrics, and contracts. This is the most intensive phase.
Phase 4: Letter of Intent (LOI) Month 5–6
The buyer submits a formal letter of intent with proposed terms: price, structure (cash, stock, earnout), timeline, and conditions. The LOI is typically non-binding but signals serious commitment.
Phase 5: Definitive Agreement Months 6–8
Lawyers draft the definitive purchase agreement. Final negotiations on price adjustments, representations, warranties, indemnification, and closing conditions.
Phase 6: Closing Months 8–9+
Regulatory approvals (if required), shareholder approvals, fund transfers, and official close. Proceeds are distributed to shareholders according to the cap table and deal terms.

How Price Gets Determined

Acquisition price is never a single formula. It's a negotiation influenced by several dynamics:

Competition: Multiple bidders drive price up. A single bidder drives it down. This is why generating broad interest matters — every additional party at the table is leverage.
Strategic vs. financial buyers: Strategic buyers (companies acquiring for synergy) typically pay 20–40% more than financial buyers (private equity acquiring for returns). In H1 2025, 85% of fintech acquisitions were strategic.
Scarcity premium: If the asset is unique — a distribution network in underserved markets, for example — the buyer can't comparison-shop. Scarcity commands premiums.
Timing and momentum: Active user growth, rising AUM, and visible market traction during the process increase the final number. Every positive data point between IOI and close is ammunition.

Bottom line: Shareholders benefit most when there are multiple buyers competing for a scarce asset with visible momentum. That's the playbook.

Where NYCE Fits

Look at the comp table again. Every premium deal has the same story: the buyer needed access to something they couldn't build fast enough — a network, a distribution channel, a community that already trusts the platform. That's not incidental to NYCE's business. It is the business.

What Buyers Pay For	Who Paid For It	NYCE
Distribution into emerging markets	Stripe paid $200M+ for Paystack's African network	2.5M+ members across Africa, Asia, and the Middle East. Already built. Already engaged. The markets where every major fintech says they want to go next.
Engaged, transacting user base	Webull valued at $7.3B on 20M users; Robinhood at $50B on 26.8M funded	Active investors trading on Nasdaq Private Market + unified WhatsApp community. Each MTU adds up to $1,000 in implied EV. (Full analysis here.)
Low-cost acquisition engine	Stripe paid 90x revenue for Bridge's developer distribution	Community built through organic content and social distribution via Meta — not paid ads. $0.03 CMAC. That's a knowledge and content moat, not a media budget.
Brand trust with underserved communities	Capital One paid $35.3B for Discover's 100M+ trusted relationships	"The Robinhood of Real Estate" — Yahoo Finance. Trust built with communities that institutional finance has historically ignored. That trust is the moat.

The thesis is simple: A buyer acquiring NYCE isn't purchasing a technology platform. They're purchasing the retail distribution layer — the audience, the trust, the knowledge infrastructure, and the deal pipeline — across the fastest-growing investor markets in the world. That combination doesn't exist anywhere else. And it can't be built from scratch.

What Shareholders Should Expect

When an acquisition closes, proceeds flow to shareholders based on the company's cap table — the record of who owns what. The exact mechanics depend on deal structure:

All-cash deals — shareholders receive cash at closing, proportional to ownership. Simplest and most common for deals under $500M.
Stock deals — shareholders receive shares in the acquiring company. Common when the buyer is public (e.g., Capital One/Discover).
Hybrid (cash + stock + earnout) — a portion paid at close, with additional payments tied to performance milestones post-acquisition. Increasingly common in fintech.

In all cases, the company's legal counsel and transfer agent manage the distribution. Shareholders are notified of the deal terms, any required approvals, and the expected timeline for receiving proceeds.

What you can do now: Every action that strengthens NYCE's position — trading on Nasdaq Private Market, joining the consolidated WhatsApp community, building portfolio success stories — increases the company's value at the negotiating table. The final price isn't set until the deal closes. Until then, momentum matters.