Sagard Holdings, the alternative investment fund affiliated with Power Corporation, is launching a blank-cheque company devoted to fintech acquisitions. The SPAC, registered as Portage Fintech Acquisition Corporation, will be overseen by senior executives at Sagard, including the SPAC’s CEO, Adam Felesky, and CFO and COO, Ajay Chowdhery. It will file to list on the Nasdaq, and is looking to make acquisitions in sectors including: 

• Wealth and asset management
• Finance for small- and medium-sized businesses
• Insurance
• Payments
• Information services
• Fintech infrastructure

To fuel its ambitions, the SPAC is looking to raise US$200 million from investors. In its filing, Portage said the company didn’t have any particular acquisition targets in mind, nor had it had any “substantive discussions” with other companies. While it plans to focus its efforts on the U.S., the SPAC might also explore opportunities in Western Europe and Canada, according to the filing. The company will strike a deal within 24 months or else return its capital to shareholders, the filing says.

The move comes at an uncertain time for SPACs, with some reportedly struggling to raise capital due to what investors see as overly high valuations. 

The sectors the SPAC is targeting align closely with the areas where Sagard and its venture capital arm, Portage Ventures, have already concentrated their investments. The firms have been aggressive in making deals in the fintech sector, backing major Canadian startups like Borrowell, Koho and Wealthsimple. Sagard’s chairman and CEO, Paul Desmarais III, has said the company hopes its investments in the space create an ecosystem of partners for the firm’s backers, which include Canadian financial institutions, in addition to generating a financial return.

The company believes its team’s large network and fintech experience will give it access to a pipeline of potential deals and could lead to additional growth for whichever business it decides to buy. Beyond its management team and board of directors, Sagard has enlisted a group of advisors to help it source deals, including Peter Hancock, former president and CEO of insurance giant AIG; Asiff Hirji, the president of Figure, who previously held senior roles at Coinbase, HP and TD Ameritrade; and Marshall Lux, a longtime consultant at McKinsey & Company and Boston Consulting Group.