Latest news with #VictorBasta
Finextra
01-07-2025
- Business
- Finextra
Fintech M&A picks up pace
Consolidation in the fintech sector is happening at pace, with disclosed deal value for transactions over $100 million in the first half of the year already close to double the total for all of 2024, according to new analysis from investment bank Artis Partners. 0 Based on PitchBook data, Artis estimates that as of June 2025, disclosed deal value stands at $3.9 billion, compared to $2 billion for the whole of 2024 — and the current pace suggests this figure could double again by year end. "The consolidation wave is no longer coming — it's already reshaping the market in real time,' says Victor Basta, managing partner at Artis Partners. 'Fintech M&A is being driven by buyers targeting the maturing middle tier: profitable, commercially proven companies that are no longer breakout IPO stories but hold strong strategic value.' These are not unicorns like Klarna or Revolut, nor early-stage single-product fintechs. Instead, buyers are focusing on companies generating up to £100 million in revenue, growing steadily, and often already profitable or break-even after cost-cutting and tighter capital conditions. Says Basta: 'For successful middle tier fintechs, growth has become more expensive. This is particularly true for consumer facing players where customer acquisition costs have risen, and also in the payments space where beyond a certain size, growth stage fintechs find it harder to compete with much larger incumbents. These problems associated with hitting a natural ceiling, and that's exactly where strategic buyers see opportunity. They're acquiring platforms they can scale further or fold into broader ecosystems. "This is the next chapter in the European fintech story. It's not about the next unicorn. It's about the next wave of exits — and the reshaping of the ecosystem that will follow.'
Finextra
17-06-2025
- Business
- Finextra
Fintech sector braces for wave of M&A
After more than a decade of growth and hundreds of funded companies, European fintech is no longer a startup story — and the stage is set for a wave of strategic acquisitions over the next two to three years according to Victor Basta, managing partner at investment bank Artis Partners. 0 'There's a growing crop of mid-sized European fintechs now solidly profitable, strategically valuable, large enough to achieve high value exits but also no longer breakout IPO stories. Given investors have backed these firms for nearly a decade so far, we expect up to a third of them to be successfully acquired in the next three years,' says Basta. 'This will trigger a wholesale realignment of key European fintech sectors around a smaller number of broader platform players, both international strategics and independent firms who will be able to scale beyond $1 billion valuations.' Companies that will feature in this next consolidation wave are not the Klarna or Revolut-level unicorns, nor early-stage single-product fintechs still trying to achieve minimum scale in their segments. Instead, the consolidation wave will focus on Europe's 'maturing middle tier': those companies generating up to £50 million in revenue, growing 20-50% annually and already profitable or break even after cost-cutting and funding constraints. 'These companies often face real commercial headwinds,' notes Basta. 'It's easy to double revenue from 5 to 10 million, but entirely different to scale from 100 to 200, particularly against larger fintechs and long-time, entrenched legacy players. Growth becomes more expensive, which drives thinking around strategic M&A. At the same time, with half of all capital going to native AI startups, many of these fintechs find raising larger rounds harder than ever today. In short, most have far greater strategic value than purely financial value.' Recent deals include Thomson Reuters' $800 million acquisition of Pagero last year, along with the sale of Freetrade to IG Group and Ravelin to Worldpay — both transactions Artis advised on. More deals like this are already in the works, Basta states, especially as these companies' investors begin reaching the end of their fund lives and need to realize the value of their investments. 'These are not isolated cases,' says Basta. 'We're seeing this shift in real time, across payments, trading and regtech.' 'This isn't just a sector trend,' he adds. 'It's a key inflection point for the European VC industry that has backed this sector since inception. These exits will determine the next generation of European fund success.'
