MoneyLion, a mobile banking, lending and investment platform, is in talks to go public through a merger with Fusion Acquisition Corp., a blank-check company, according to people with knowledge of the matter.
Fusion, the special purpose acquisition company, has begun discussions to raise new equity from potential investors for a transaction that’s set to value the combined entity at more than $2 billion, said the people, who requested anonymity because the talks are private. The SPAC is seeking to raise about $200 million to fund the deal, an amount that may be increased, said some of the people.
A deal, if agreed, could be announced in coming weeks. It’s possible terms change or talks fall apart.
Representatives for MoneyLion and Fusion didn’t immediately respond to requests for comment.
Shares of Fusion rose as much as 12% after the close of regular trading Thursday.
New York-based MoneyLion, led by founder and Chief Executive Officer Diwakar “Dee” Choubey, has more than 6 million members with features like “RoarMoney” which gives users the ability to access paychecks two days early and free withdrawals from 55,000 ATMs, its website shows. The company counts Edison Partners, Greenspring Associates, MetaBank and Capital One Growth Ventures among its investors.
MoneyLion last year added exchange-traded funds to its offerings, with members able to invest in themes such as environmental, social and corporate governance, or ESG, and technologies such as robotics, artificial intelligence and autonomous cars.
Fusion, led by Chairman Jim Ross, a former Street Global Advisors executive, and CEO John James, raised $350 million in a June initial public offering. The firm said it was seeking a financial-technology target with an enterprise value of $750 million to $3 billion.
Financial technology companies including Bakkt, Metromile, SoFi, Katapult and Paya have agreed to go public through SPAC deals, an increasingly popular method for closely held companies to list shares.
This article originally appeared on Bloomberg.
