Kakao Pay, the online payment service of South Korean messaging and internet giant Kakao, announced that it has acquired a stake in Siebert Financial, a brokerage firm based in New York. Kakao spent $17 million on this transaction and the company now owns a 19.9% stake in Siebert. This is just the first step as Kakao Pay plans to acquire an additional 31.1% stake in Siebert depending on shareholder and regulatory approval. If it goes through, Kakao Pay would become the largest shareholder of Siebert, owning a 51% stake in total. Gloria Gebbia, Siebert's controlling shareholder and board member, told TechCrunch that the second transaction is expected to close in the first quarter of 2024. Kakao Pay first launched its mobile payment service in 2014. It was spun off from Kakao Corp in 2017 and it is now one of the major mobile payment players in South Korea. The Korean fintech firm offers online and offline payments, money transfer, credit rating, insurance and loan services to approximately 40 million registered users in South Korea. Siebert Financial, the U.S.-based brokerage and financial advisory firm, and its subsidiaries have been providing financial services for over 50 years. One of its subsidiaries, Muriel Siebert & Co (MSCO), has more than 100,000 customers....

In the United States, much of commerce relies on moving goods on trucks to market. The way it works is a manufacturer calls a shipping broker with instructions like 'I need to get a load of beer to Dallas by Friday.' They agree on a price and the broker finds a trucker to deliver the goods. The financials can get complicated, and much of the work is still done by fax, phone and in spreadsheets. Mvmnt is trying to bring some more sophisticated technology to bear on the process, while providing a full set of freight brokerage services. Today, the Chicago-based startup announced a $20 million Series A. 'We're what's called a Transportation Management System (TMS).You could just think about that as enterprise software for managing freight, and so when I say freight, we're talking about domestic truckloads,' CEO and founder Michael Colin explained. The freight broker's job is to negotiate a price with the shipper and then one with the trucker, both at a price point that allows them to make a profit as the party in the middle....

Cinven said the company was an attractive investments given its cash-generative business model and recurring revenue base, strong brand equity and its robust performance during the Covid-19 pandemic and prior economic downturns. Luigi Sbrozzi, partner and co-head of the SFF, said, 'The investment is supported by a resilient underlying market in Sweden and is well-positioned to grow organically, with further upside through its demonstrated M&A trajectory. Previous SFF investments have included specialist insurance and reinsurance broker Miller, life insurance provider International Financial Group and Compre, a specialist global consolidator of closed books of non-life insurance policies. Subscribe to our Newsletter to increase your edge. Don't worry about the news anymore, through our newsletter you'll receive weekly access to what is happening. Join 120,000 other PE professionals today....

Morgan Stanley is set to increase its stake in its brokerage joint venture in China by 4.06% to 94%, an exchange filing showed on Wednesday, putting it on track to take full ownership of the business. The U.S. bank will inject $110m to boost the registered capital of the unit, a venture formed by Morgan Stanley and China Fortune Securities Co in 2011, to 1.71 billion yuan, according to an exchange filing by China Fortune. Subscribe to our Newsletter to increase your edge. Don’t worry about the news anymore, through our newsletter you’ll receive weekly access to what is happening. Join 120,000 other PE professionals today. ...