No Toast for SPACs, but 6 SPACs may toast to successful mergers this week (pending redemption numbers)

The banking and investing app MoneyLion is adding crypto trading to its all-in-one financial services app.

The eight-year-old fintech company, which plans to go public later this month [via merger with Fusion Acquisition Corp. (FUSE)] on the New York Stock Exchange under the ticker ML, will introduce buying and selling capabilities for bitcoin and ether at its Investor Conference on Monday morning, CEO Dee Choubey told CNBC.

Choubey called the initial development the “the beginning of the education process” for its consumers during the “early innings of DeFi” and talked about the potential to explore different yield products, crypto payment applications and NFT marketplaces down the road.

“It’s a very important first step if we think that the future of fintech is DeFi,” he told CNBC. “We will have created a segment of the population and have exposed them to DeFi so when it becomes more ubiquitous, they’re fully prepared to take advantage of it.”

MoneyLion won’t charge transaction fees to consumers, but will make money on the spread when they convert their cryptocurrency to dollars.

Toast Inc., [considered going the SPAC route, according to a WSJ article back in February] which helps restaurants handle payments, is seeking as much as $717 million in a U.S. initial public offering. 

The Boston-based company plans to sell 21.7 million Class A shares at $30 to $33 apiece, it said in a regulatory filing Monday. The deal could value Toast at as much as $16.5 billion based on the number of outstanding shares listed in the prospectus.

Toast’s share sale will add to the $104 billion already raised by tech company IPOs this year, according to data compiled by Bloomberg. The offering comes as the restaurant industry rebounds from a pandemic that was disastrous for in-person dining, but was a boon for takeout and delivery services.

The company said its software is easy for restaurant workers to use and lets diners order online, in-person or over their phones. Restaurants can also use the guest data it captures to craft loyalty and marketing programs. 

Toast’s revenue rose 105% year-over-year during the six months ending June 30, to $704 million. Its net loss widened to $235 million, from $125 million a year earlier. 

Incorporated in 2011, the company’s platform was used by about 48,000 restaurants as of June 30 and had processed more than $38 billion in gross payments over the previous 12 months. In June, it averaged over 5.5 million guest orders per day.

The company raised money last year at a valuation of $4.9 billion from investors including Bessemer Venture Partners, TPG, Tiger Global Management and Greenoaks Capital.