Consolidation continues apace on the planet of fintech. FIS, the fintech big that runs a variety of cost, banking and funding companies, has acquired Bond, a startup that makes a speciality of embedded finance, a number of sources confirmed at this time. 

Fintech Enterprise Weekly’s Jason Mikula broke the information final week that the deal was within the works. Our sources verify that the deal has now closed, as of at this time.

FIS isn’t sharing how a lot it paid for Bond, a San Francisco-based BaaS (banking-as-a-service) startup. However as a degree of reference, PitchBook notes that Bond was valued at $182 million the final time it raised cash, in 2020. Since 2019, Bond has raised a complete of $42 million in funding, in response to Crunchbase.

It has a formidable checklist of backers. Coatue Administration led the corporate’s final spherical, a $32 million Collection A in 2020, which additionally included participation from Mastercard, Goldman Sachs, Canaan Companions, B Capital Group and former Morgan Stanley CEO John Mack. 

BaaS, generally known as embedded finance, helps manufacturers (generally these nicely exterior the world of finance) combine monetary companies like bank cards and financial institution accounts to in flip promote on these companies to their clients.

Touting “an AI-powered infrastructure,” Bond works to assist digital manufacturers – together with different fintechs reminiscent of Pocketbook and Everest – provide “customized and compliant banking merchandise.” 

With roughly 30 workers, Bond’s focus has been on constructing APIs and software program that allows business and client bank card options, in addition to debit playing cards and accounts.

In response to an inner memo by FIS seen by TechCrunch, the FIS and Bond management groups “will decide how the 2 corporations will work collectively,” together with how FIS will convey Bond’s capabilities into FIS’s current relationships.

FIS SVP of Platforms Himal Makwana, in partnership with the corporate’s integration administration workplace, will probably be main post-purchase planning actions, the memo added.

It’s not clear why Bond has opted to get acquired, however the deal comes amid a really unsettled interval within the worlds of know-how, enterprise funding and monetary companies. Funding exercise has largely floor to a halt on the planet of startups in comparison with earlier years, which partly contributed to the collapse of two main banks specializing in the tech sector.

It’s not clear what the monetary state of play was at Bond, but it surely’s notable that it hadn’t raised cash since 2020, and amid a decline in fintech enterprise funding particularly, M&A could have develop into an attention-grabbing choice for the startup. 

On the opposite facet of the equation, larger incumbents like FIS, in addition to bigger fintechs, have been making quite a few strikes to purchase corporations like fintechs to bolt on expertise and know-how in a race to replace their very own services amid the aggressive panorama. 

Earlier this yr, Marqeta acquired monetary infrastructure startup Energy Finance in a $275 million deal. JP Morgan closed its acquisition of Aumni. And Brazilian fintech infra firm Pismo is claimed to be within the midst of being courted by the likes of Visa and Mastercard in a reported $1 billion transaction.

Not each M&A deal works out nicely, in fact, with the largest usually being the toughest to digest. FIS made one of many largest-ever acquisitions on the planet of funds when it acquired WorldPay for about $43 billion in 2019. That deal by no means actually got here up trumps, although. In February of this yr, FIS confirmed that it will be spinning WorldPay off.

Need extra fintech information in your inbox? Enroll right here.

Received a information tip or inside details about a subject we coated? We’d love to listen to from you. You may attain me at maryann@techcrunch.com. Or you may drop us a word at ideas@techcrunch.com. Joyful to respect anonymity requests.