(Bloomberg) -- FinAccel Pte, the parent company of Indonesian fintech startup Kredivo, agreed to go public in the U.S. through a merger with a blank-check firm that values the combined companies at $2.5 billion.
FinAccel is merging with VPC Impact Acquisition Holdings II, a special purpose acquisition company sponsored by Chicago-based Victory Park Capital Advisors LLC, the companies said in a statement on Tuesday.
The deal will include a private investment in public equity, or PIPE, of $120 million from investors including Marshall Wace, Corbin Capital, SV Investment, Maso Capital and Victory Park Capital. Separately, existing backers Naver Corp. and Square Peg Capital agreed to invest $55 million of equity.
Singapore-based FinAccel is the latest startup in Southeast Asia to take advantage of a U.S.-led SPAC boom. It's set to become the first dedicated fintech startup in the region to list in the U.S., joining Singapore's Grab Holdings Inc. and PropertyGuru Pte, which are also planning to go public via blank-check companies.
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Going public through the SPAC process lets the company “diversify the investor base and access larger amounts of capital faster,” FinAccel Chief Executive Officer Akshay Garg said in an interview. “The deal puts up to $430 million on the company's balance sheet, which gives us the firepower to build a large, diversified, digital financial services business in Southeast Asia.”
Victory Park Capital and Kredivo began speaking about a potential deal after the fintech closed a $100 million credit facility from the firm in June, Garg said.
“We thought it made a ton of sense,” he added.
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The proposed business combination is subject to approval by the SPAC's stockholders and regulators. The merger is expected to close no later than the first quarter of 2022, according to the statement.
Shares of VPC Impact Acquisition Holdings II rose 0.3% to $9.77 in New York on Monday.
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