U.S. Consumer Confidence Drops; EToro Files to IPO; Affirm Partners with JPMorgan
Cole Gottlieb, Research Analyst
U.S. consumer confidence drops. EToro files to go public. Patriot commences $50Mn recap. Ribbit is raising a new $500Mn fund. Mercury raises $300Mn. Affirm partners with JPMorgan Payments.
In case you missed it, we published our Q4 Consumer Lending Review this week, covering the takeaways from consumer lender/bank earnings and recent trends in MPL new issue volume.
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Consumer Confidence Drops
U.S. consumer confidence dropped in March, hitting the lowest level in four years. Concerns about rising prices and the potential impact of President Trump’s tariffs on the economy have darkened consumers’ outlook. The Conference Board’s measure came in at 92.9, dropping 7.2 points from February. An indicator of expectations for the next six months hit 65.2, a drop of 10 points, hitting the lowest level in over a decade.
EToro Files IPO Paperwork
With Klarna’s imminent IPO, the vibe is that the IPO window is open. While rumors abound about who else may be considering going public, this much we know: stock and crypto trading platform eToro has filed its IPO paperwork, revealing a jump in revenue and net income in 2024. The company posted $12.6Bn in revenue and $192Mn in net income last year. But a whopping 96% of the company’s revenue came from crypto-related products. The exact size and value of eToro’s offering isn’t yet known. EToro previously attempted to go public via a SPAC during the 2022 craze, but the deal was ultimately scuttled. That transaction, had it been completed, would have valued eToro at about $10.4Bn.
Patriot Commences $50Mn Recap
Patriot National Bancorp, a player in the partner banking space, completed purchase agreements with the goal of raising $50Mn in capital. The publicly traded company finalized a series of private placements to issue common stock and non-voting preferred shares to “a diverse group of accredited investors,” according to the bank’s statement. Current CEO David Lowery is set to depart next month, with current president Steven Sugarman taking the CEO reins in interim capacity. A permanent replacement for Lowery has not yet been confirmed. Patriot was hit with an enforcement action from its primary regulator, the OCC, in January, which deemed the bank to be in “troubled condition.”
Ribbit Seeks to Raise New $500Mn Fund
Prolific fintech VC investor Ribbit Capital has announced that it is raising a new $500Mn fund. Ribbit has invested in some of the biggest names in fintech, including Brazil-based Nubank, Robinhood, Affirm, Coinbase, and Walmart’s fintech play OnePay. According to TechCrunch and Crunchbase data, since 2012, Ribbit has invested in 243 companies, leading rounds in 90 of them. Alongside signs that exit opportunities are improving, with the IPO window seemingly opening, industry analysts interpret Ribbit’s new fund as another data point that fintech is seeing something of a resurgence.
Mercury Announces $300Mn Raise
Business banking startup has announced it raised a fresh $300Mn in funding at a $3.5Bn post-money valuation. The transaction included both primary and secondary (e.g., employee tender offer) funding. The valuation is more than double the $1.62Bn mark it raised in a $120Mn Series B in 2021. Sequoia led the latest round, with participation from existing investors that include Andreessen Horowitz, CRV, Coatue, as well as new investors Spark Capital and Marathon. Mercury cofounder and CEO told TechCrunch the company had notched $500Mn in revenue last year and has recorded 10 consecutive quarters of EBITDA and GAAP profitability.
Affirm Partners with JPMorgan Payments
Affim has struck a deal with JPMorgan Chase to offer its BNPL services to merchants who use the bank to handle credit card payments. The news follows a similar announcement from Klarna last month, and the more recent news that Klarna would be Walmart neobank OnePay’s “exclusive” provider of some BNPL products. As of now, Affirm continues to partner with Walmart itself, a separate entity from OnePay. Merchants will be able to opt in to adding Affirm as an option on their checkout pages. Of the partnership, the global head of payment services for JPMorgan said, “The demand for diverse payment options, flexibility, and seamless transactions from both merchants and their customers is at an all-time high.”
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