Payoneer, a New York-based payments fintech with a large presence in Asia Pacific, is being acquired by a SPAC that is owned by some of the biggest names in asset management.
The backers of the Special Purpose Acquisition Company, called FTAC Olympus Acquisition Corp., have some similarities to the investors behind Payoneer. FTAC Olympus, which is listed on Nasdaq, includes as its investors Wellington Management, a large Boston-based active management firm, which is an original investor in Payoneer.
Other investors in the SPAC include Fidelity Management & Research, Franklin Templeton, and Dragoneer Investment Group, along with funds managed by Millennium Management, funds advised by T. Rowe Price, and Winslow Capital Management.
The SPAC is led by Betsy Cohen, its board chairwoman. “Payoneer is at the forefront of the rapid, global shift to digital commerce across all sectors,” she said.
SPACs are listed vehicles created as listed vehicles with a mission to buy a single company and essentially give it a back-door listing. SPACs usually involve a combination of common equity and warrants. The Payoneer announcement did not detail the structure of the SPAC or touch on the issue of warrants.
The combined entity will operate as Payoneer, under a holding company called Payoneer Global. The company says its enterprise value is estimated at $3.3 billion.
The Payoneer management team will remain intact, including founder and president Yuval Tai, CEO Scott Galit, COO Keren Levy and CFO Michael Levine.
Over the past 15 years, Payoneer has built a broad ecosystem that connects marketplaces, sellers, freelancers, gig workers, manufacturers, banks, suppliers, buyers and more into an integrated global platform. Payoneer’s platform offers a global, multi-currency account to businesses of any size around the world, enabling them to pay and get paid globally as easily as they do locally.
“Technology is transforming commerce globally, bringing down borders and making it possible for entrepreneurs from all over the world to build a digital business,” said Galit.
DigFin has provided services to Payoneer, supporting their discussion with a range of companies from the digital economy in Asia the challenges of cross-border payments.
