Deal activity is picking up in the fintech space as smaller startups that had great promise are being scooped up by the big boys. This M&A activity is expected to accelerate as the market starts to feel the impact of the Coronavirus. We will see the big players such as Paypal, the banks, Visa and Mastercard will be leading the way:

A surge in deals began just as the contagion was spreading. In January Visa announced it would pay $5.3 billion to purchase San Francisco’s Plaid, a tech platform connecting bank accounts to apps, and in February Intuit said it would pay $7.1 billion for Credit Karma. The coronavirus pandemic—and the business disruptions it is causing—will quicken the pace of transactions over the next year. Already, Motif, a 10-year old stock investing fintech backed by Goldman Sachs and JPMorgan that was once valued at $440 million, announced that it would shutter and sell its tech and intellectual property to Charles Schwab. Some like Motif and On Deck will end up in shotgun weddings, but others will find happy marriages of convenience.

Let’s see how this plays out.