On Monday, Dec. 7, Paysafe confirmed a merger with a special purpose acquisition company (SPAC) backed by investor Bill Foley, Foley Trasimene Acquisition Corp II – a deal that valued the payments platform at $9B.

Why should we care?
London-based Paysafe, a company backed by Blackstone Group and CVC Capital Partners, offers processing services to allow companies to accept payments online. The company is riding a wave of investor enthusiasm around payments due to an increase in digital payment activity during the pandemic. Paysafe has been prominent in retail as well as online gambling transactions, and had annualized transaction volume of more than $98B in 2019. Earlier this year, it rolled out a money-transfer service to allow U.S. customers to transfer funds to Mexico, India, and 16 other countries. The merger marks one of the largest blank-check deals in 2020, a year which saw an increase in the number of companies going public through SPACs. Paysafe was acquired by Blackstone and CVC for £3B ($4B) in 2017.