Regional bank Fifth Third Bancorp acquires embedded payments firm Rize Money

Rize Money, an embedded payments platform, was acquired by Ohio-based Fifth Third Bancorp as the bank payments business is projected to eclipse $130m this year.

Fifth Third Bancorp, a regional bank based in Ohio, has acquired Rize Money, an embedded payments platform, this week aimed at incorporating the Arlington-based fintech’s technology into the bank’s existing offering.

“Rize Money enhances our existing embedded payments offerings and positions us to meet our client’s ever-changing needs,” Bridgit Chayt, head of wholesale payments at Fifth Third Bank said. 

Rize Money, co-founded in 2014 by CEO Justin Howell, previously raised $11.4m in 2021 as part of a Series A funding round led by co-led by Alpha Edison, and Morpheus Ventures.

While the deal's financials were not disclosed, Fifth Third Bancorp said that its embedded payments business was growing at double-digits and expected to reach over $130m this year. 

The regional bank trades on the Nasdaq under the FITB ticker and has made several recent acquisitions while other banks are struggling –  acquiring Big Data, a technology solutions provider for healthcare payments and remittances, last week. Yet they are not immune to the rising interest rate environment, increasing their prime lending rate from 8 to 8.25 per cent at the beginning of May. 

“From our first conversation, it was clear that Tom and the Embedded Payments team at Fifth Third shared that vision,” Howell wrote on Linkedin, “and we could not have found a better set of partners to make that vision a reality together at the scale and level of impact that we have always dreamed about.”