The AI race is pushing mergers and acquisitions among fintechs and financial institutions.   

M&A opportunities are becoming more enticing to fintechs as they work to demonstrate AI maturity to investors and potential bank partners while “re-platforming to compete with the major guys,” Sarah Biller, co-founder of Fintech Sandbox, a non-profit that provides free data access to startups, told FinAi News. 

Biller is also a board member at Thread Bank.  

“I think it’s a natural fit for some of these companies where their capabilities may be on one side of the bell curve or the other to come together,” Biller said. 

For example, some fintechs have poured time and money into AI product development while others have a strong distribution channel and customer base but lack AI sophistication. That makes for a good potential merger or acquisition, she said.  

Doing one or the other could attract investors as more venture capitalists target later-stage fintechs seeking larger funding rounds, Biller said.  

Recent deals 

M&A deals among fintechs totaled $252 billion in 2025 — a 37% increase year over year — according to Financial Technology Partners, an investment banking firm focused on the fintech sector. 

That trend has continued in 2026.  

This week, payments fintech Stripe announced it is acquiring OpenRouter, a unified API gateway that gives developers access to more than 400 LLMs. Stripe is paying more than $7 billion, according to Bloomberg.  

The acquisition strengthens Stripe’s AI infrastructure because OpenRouter helps businesses optimize token usage, Stripe Chief Executive Patrick Collison stated in a release.  

Additionally, Datavault AI, a tech company that uses AI to help businesses maximize data and digital assets, acquired tech-focused financial institution BankWyse, a move that “drastically” enhances its platform, DataVault President and CEO Nathaniel Bradley said during the company’s Aug. 19 earnings call.  

BankWyse, which holds a specialized Wyoming state bank charter designed for digital assets, will rebrand to DataVault Bank.  

Other recent deals include:

• Thomas Bravo announcing Aug.13 that it will acquire specialty insurance fintech Accelerant for more than $4 billion;
• Financial data and reconciliation software company AutoRek announcing on Aug. 3 that it bought AI-powered compliance fintech Grath for an undisclosed amount;
• WealthReach, an AI-powered growth platform for financial advisers and wealth managers, announcing on July 30 that it acquired AI search optimization company AdvisorRankings for an undisclosed amount;
• AI-native banking platform Backbase announcing on June 23 that it had acquired agentic AI provider Kasisto for an undisclosed amount; and
• B2B payments platform Deluxe announcing on June 18 that it would acquire payments fintech Celero Commerce for $625 million. 

AI also is accelerating bank M&A activity, especially among community and regional banks seeking opportunities to combine technology stacks and compete with larger institutions, Annie DeStefano, founder and chief executive of Ann DeStefano Advisory, which provides consulting to banks and fintechs, told FinAi News. 

There were 84 bank M&A deals through the first half of 2026 — up from 76 at midyear 2025 —  according to professional services firm Forvis Mazars.  

Register here for the FinAi Lending Summit, set for Oct. 7-8 in Las Vegas. This inaugural event will include speakers from Fifth Third and Capital One as well as a fireside chat with Piermont Bank founder and Chief Executive Wendy Cai-Lee.