Dive Brief:

• Chicago-based banking technology provider Amount has purchased Linear Financial Technologies for $175 million in cash and stock, according to a Tuesday news release. Reston, Virginia-based Linear is a small and midsize business loan and account origination platform.
• Linear will be rebranded as Amount Small Business, which Linear’s CEO, Sam Graziano, will head up once the deal is complete. The combined business will be led by Amount CEO Adam Hughes.
• Amount has approximately 450 employees split between Chicago and Los Angeles, and Linear has about 190 employees between its New York City and Reston offices. All four office locations and workers will be retained, an Amount spokesperson said.

Dive Insight:

After Amount raised nearly $100 million in venture capital last year — giving it a $1 billion valuation — the fintech said the funding would be partly used to pursue acquisition opportunities to add new products or features. The Linear acquisition gives Amount the opportunity to integrate that fintech's business loan technology.

Amount, which helps digitize account opening and loan origination for banks, and offers buy-now, pay-later financing, works with TD and Regions, among others. Linear's digital account origination and insights platform counts American Express, Citizens Bank and PNC as clients, according to Tuesday's news release.

The purchase offered an "opportunity to pair Amount’s consumer banking solution and buy-now, pay-later technology with Linear’s small business banking solutions" to help financial institutions streamline business processes, Hughes said in the release. 

"We are always looking for ways to be that one-stop-shop platform for banks," Hughes told American Banker. Bringing together Amount's and Linear's offerings "makes [Amount] an extremely attractive partner for a bank looking to digitize." 

Graziano said there's a prime opportunity for the combined company to address "a desire for our bank clients to simplify their vendor portfolios and build deeper relationships with the ones they trust."  

With the acquisition, Amount plans to expand its product set, including its retail banking suite and its offerings in business-to-consumer and business-to-business point-of-sale, fraud detection and embedded finance, according to the release. 

Amount’s clients include financial institutions collectively managing more than $3 trillion in U.S. assets. Amount paired up with Marqeta in October to introduce a virtual card and loan origination partnership that helps banks enter the BNPL space.

The companies did not give a timeline by which they expect the deal to be complete.