Thiel-backed Spac agrees to merge with Asian startup MoneyHero

MONEYHERO, the Asian personal-finance comparison website, has agreed to go public in a deal with a blank-cheque company backed by billionaires Peter Thiel and Richard Li. 

The merger with investment firm Bridgetown Holdings values MoneyHero at about US$200 million including debt, as indicated by a statement on Thursday (May 25) that confirmed an earlier Bloomberg News report. The combined company will have an enterprise value of as much as US$342 million if there are no redemptions by the special purpose acquisition company’s shareholders. 

After the transaction closes, MoneyHero will trade on the Nasdaq under the “MNY” ticker. The group, formerly known as Hyphen Group or CompareAsia Group, offers comparison tools for credit cards, personal loans and other financial products. 

It had about 9.8 million monthly unique users in March across its websites targeting markets including Hong Kong, Malaysia, the Philippines, Singapore and Taiwan.

MoneyHero’s existing investors include Goldman Sachs as well as Li’s insurance company, FWD Group, and PCCW, a Hong Kong telecom company where he is the major shareholder. They will all roll their equity into the combined company through the deal, which is expected to close in the second half of the year. 

Bridgetown raised US$595 million in a US initial public offering in 2020. Its sponsor, Bridgetown LLC, is a collaboration between the PayPal Holdings founder’s Thiel Capital and Li’s investment flagship Pacific Century Group. BLOOMBERG