Fifth Third Bank to acquire Provide, a fintech focused on health care practices

Cincinnati-based Fifth Third Bank will acquire Provide, an 8-year-old startup that focuses on building financial products that make starting and running a healthcare practice easy, including practice lending, business bank accounts, and insurance. Terms of the deal were not disclosed.

Why should we care?
With Provide, Fifth Third Bank moves deeper into health care, and the announcement comes six months after the bank signaled its intent to acquire Hammond Hanlon Camp, a strategic advisory and investment banking firm focused on hospitals, health systems, and related organizations. Provide offers Fifth Third a foothold into the financial services needs of health care practices. Fifth Third was an early investor in Provide, and the bank started to fund loans through its platform last year. Provide initially began offering practice lending solutions, and eventually added banking and payments. Working with Fifth Third, Provide originated approximately $1B in loans. Fifth Third isn’t the only large bank making health care fintech acquisitions. In April, Bank of America acquired Axiamed, a 6-year-old payments technology company focused on health care, particularly patient payments. “Together, we can deliver a client experience that enables health care providers to focus on what they do best—providing the care their patients need while we make their banking experience convenient and efficient,” Greg Carmichael, chairman and CEO at Fifth Third said in a statement.