Digital payments company Payoneer Global will begin trading on Nasdaq in the very near future under the PAYO ticker, after the shareholders of US special purpose acquisition company (SPAC) FTAC Olympus Acquisition Corp. approved the merger with an over4whelming 97.8% majority, with the Israeli-founded fintech company. Payoneer will complete the SPAC merger at a company valuation of $3.3 billion (enterprise value), Trend reports with reference to Globes.
The company was founded in 2005 in Israel by Yuval Tal and Ben Yaniv Chechik and has developed a digital payments platform for suppliers and service providers. Payoneer has built a system based on direct relationships with banks, thus saving on fees to credit card companies. The company's CEO is Scott Galit.
Payoneer has raised $145 million from investors including TCV, Susquehanna Growth Equity (SGE), Viola Ventures, Wellington Management, and Temasek. It was recently reported that one of the company's early investors was Israel's new Prime Minister Naftali Bennett who invested several hundred million dollars in Payoneer's early stages and now has a stake worth several million dollars. The company's most recent financing round was completed at a company valuation of $1.5 billion.
In 2020, Payoneer reported revenue of $346 million, up 8.8% from 2019, and a operating loss of $17.3 million and net loss of $23.7 million, compared with 2019 when it balanced the books. In the first quarter of 2021, revenue was $101 million, up 22.8% from the first quarter of 2020. Operational loss was $1.1 million and net loss was $3.5 million, narrowing from a net loss of $7.5 million in the first quarter of 2020.
FTAC Olympus Acquisition Corp. chairman Betsy Cohen, who led the merger, said "We are thrilled with the overwhelming support from our shareholders, and also pleased that we’ve received all regulatory approvals needed to close the transaction. We look forward to supporting Payoneer as it enters the public markets."