Instant payments company TabaPay has abandoned its plans to buy the assets of troubled banking-as-a-service startup Synapse, TabaPay confirmed to TechCrunch today. Synapse says the problem lies with banking partner Evolve Bank & Trust. And evolution says that it is not involved, and is not to blame. Meanwhile, another player in the story, Mercury, says Synapse’s allegations have “no merit.”
Synapse’s lawyer announced in bankruptcy court Thursday that the deal will not move forward, Fintech Business Weekly’s Jason Mikula Shared on LinkedIn.. A TabaPay spokesperson confirmed to TechCrunch on Thursday afternoon that the company had “withdrawn,” adding that TabaPay “terminated the purchase agreement this morning based on failure to meet the closing conditions of the purchase agreement.” A notice was sent.”
Synapse However, CEO and co-founder Sanket Pathak believes that TabaPay can still be convinced to stay in the deal. He told TechCrunch that his “understanding is. TabaPay Still interested in being acquired, but Evolve has failed to meet its closing condition to close TabaPay.”
According to Pathak, that closing condition is that Evol Bank & Trust must fully fund its FBO accounts and has so far failed to do so. FBO “For Benefit Of” Account means, and is defined as, “a bank or investment account established to receive funds on behalf of a third party or beneficiary.”
For its part, an Evolve spokesperson told TechCrunch that “Evolve was not a party to the Tabapay (sic) acquisition, and we do not have closing conditions to meet. However, we do have a settlement agreement with Synapse. was a condition of funding that Evolve fulfilled.”
Still, Pathak maintained that: “As of last night Evolve had stated that it would fund its FBO accounts as required by the parties’ settlement agreement, but that it had not resolved the issue with Mercury and Continued to request an extension to get buy-in, Pathak told TechCrunch. “And last night, Evolve notified Synapse and TabaPay that they had fully funded the accounts — when they hadn’t. . Given this open issue – TabaPay is unable to close the transaction.
San Francisco-based Synapse, which operates a platform enabling banks and fintech companies to develop financial services, was founded in 2014 by Bryan Keltner and Pathak. It was providing such services as an intermediary between banking partner Evolv Bank & Trust and business banking startup Mercury.
Synapse ran into trouble last year after serving as an intermediary between banking partner Evolv Bank & Trust and business banking startup Mercury. When Evolve and Mercury decided to end their respective relationships with Synapse and work directly with each other, Evolve and Synapse were reportedly at odds with each other as the relationship was ending. (Evolve is not to be confused with Choice Bank, another Mercury partner that the FDIC is increasingly complying with in how it allows Mercury accounts to be opened overseas.)
I An intermediate postPathak alleged that when Mercury and Evil ended their partnership with Synapse.Mercury transferred $49.6 million more from Synapse-affiliated accounts than Synapse believed it should have and has not reconciled the overdraw.
In October, Mercury publicly stated that the transition away from Synapse was complete and “reconciled”.
“Our hope with open-sourcing this information is that there will be a public outcry (at least from our customers) that will encourage Evolve and/or Mercury to quickly address this issue,” Pathak wrote. Instead of hoping that this problem will go away,” Pathak wrote. “This resolution is material to Synapse and our ability to close the TabaPay transaction. Our understanding is that Taba will complete the acquisition if Evolve satisfies the closing condition of funding its accounts.”
In a written statement, a Mercury spokesperson told TechCrunch: “We have fully investigated Synapse’s claims since they were brought to our attention in March 2024 – six months after we migrated from Synapse – and We believe they have no merit and all customer funds are accounted for.”
The spokesperson added, “After Mercury sued Synapse in December 2023 seeking to recover significant revenue from Mercury, Synapse began making allegations and counterclaims against Mercury. These claims number and There are different types, and we have investigated them all with great care, but all have been found to be baseless.” Mercury specifically denies the allegations that “Mercury’s customer FBO accounts were allegedly overdrawn.”
On April 22, TechCrunch reported that Synapse had filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy and that its assets would be acquired by TabaPay, according to the two companies.
The deal was pending bankruptcy court approval.
The $9.7 million purchase price was significantly less than the more than $50 million in venture capital that Synapse has raised over time from investors such as Andreessen Horowitz, Trinity Ventures and Core Innovation Capital.
Established in 2017, based in Mountain View TabaPay is an instant money movement platform backed by SoftBank for an undisclosed amount in the 2022 round. It’s unclear how much venture capital it has raised.
Last October, Synapse laid off 86 people, or about 40% of the company. This was after the startup laid off 18 percent of its workforce last June. At the time, Synapse said the “current macroeconomic conditions” had begun to affect its clients and platforms, impacting its projected growth.
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Credit : techcrunch.com