(Reuters) - 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. bloom.bg/35XDVes
Financial Technology Partners is the financial and capital markets advisor to Payoneer.
Reporting by Sohini Podder in Bengaluru; Editing by Arun Koyyur
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