This round of congratulations is going to CardUp. Founded in 2016, they're a Singapore-based fintech that helps individuals and businesses make and collect payments.

• They have tens of thousands of customers across Singapore, Malaysia and Hong Kong.

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🤨 Who's the buyer?

CardUp's set to be acquired Southeast Asia's largest digital financing platform for SMEs, Funding Societies! They raised a $144M Series C+ round earlier this year.

• The deal amount is hush-hush and is still subject to regulatory approval.
• Funding Societies and CardUp are both backed by Sequoia Capital India.

Making big moves. Funding Societies has also recently invested in Indonesia's Bank Index, launched a virtual business card and expanded to Vietnam.

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🤷🏻‍♀️ Why it makes sense

Funding Societies will gain CardUp's payment capabilities and expertise, as well as their licenses and integrations with business software. This way, Funding Societies can complement their lending products and get closer to becoming an all-in-one financial solution for SEA's SMEs.

• CardUp allows businesses to accept online payments, access interest-free working capital, automate invoices and make card payments (even to non-card accepting recipients).

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🔜 What happens next

Once the deal gets the go-ahead, CardUp's CEO, Nicki Ramsay will lead Funding Societies' payments business.

• CardUp customer? No worries, there won't be any issues with your account and payments. CardUp will keep all their employees and continue serving you. ✌🏼