Payment startup Payoneer to go public via $3.3 billion merger with Cohen-backed SPAC

Online payment startup Payoneer Inc said on Wednesday it has agreed to go public through a merger with a blank-check firm backed by banking entrepreneur Betsy Cohen, in a deal that valued the merged entity at about $3.3 billion.

As part of the deal with FTAC Olympus Acquisition Corp, Payoneer will receive $300 million from investors including Wellington Management, Dragoneer Investment Group, Fidelity Management & Research Company and Franklin Templeton.

Founded in New York City in 2005, Payoneer provides businesses and professionals with a cross-border payments platform and has over four million customers. Its major investors include Susquehanna Growth Equity, Wellington Management Company and Chinese private equity firm CBC Capital.

FTAC Olympus, a special purpose acquisition company (SPAC), which raises funds through an initial public offering to take another company public through a merger, raised $750 million in its IPO last year.

Cohen, who founded Jefferson Bank and Bancorp Inc, is one of a handful of prominent women entrepreneurs to have joined the recent blank-check dealmaking frenzy.

In December, Cohen’s FinTech Acquisition Corporation IV took boutique investment bank Perella Weinberg Partners public in a $975 million deal.

SPACs emerged as one of the most popular investment vehicles in 2020, raising a record total of more than $70 billion last year.

However, Goldman Sachs Group Inc chief David Solomon has warned the boom in equity issuance by SPACs is not sustainable in the long run.

Financial Technology Partners is the financial and capital markets advisor to Payoneer.

Source: Reuters