For deal sourcers, staying current on private company activity is critical to spotting active buyers, tracking market trends, and uncovering emerging investment opportunities ahead of competitors.
In March alone, we added more than 1,800 new private company transactions, bringing the total to over 19,000 searchable deals across sectors, industries, and transaction types in Dakota Marketplace.
Inside Dakota Marketplace, you’ll find the transactions tab that provides structured, filterable data on deal types, values, and dates, while our editorial team curates daily updates through the dakota transactions newsletter, helping you cut through the noise and focus on what matters most.
To ensure the most comprehensive coverage of private market activity, Dakota monitors over 10,000 websites including company websites, newswires, and numerous third-party news providers to capture and verify transaction data as it happens.
Below are the top 10 financial transactions.
- Transaction Date: 3/17/2026
- Industry: Financial Services
- Type: Acquisition / Merger
- Transaction Value: $1.8B
Mastercard announced a definitive agreement to acquire BVNK, a stablecoin infrastructure platform operating across 130+ countries, for up to $1.8 billion — including $300 million in contingent payments — to bridge on-chain digital currency rails with its existing fiat payment network. The deal, expected to close before year-end, positions Mastercard to serve financial institutions and fintechs seeking compliant stablecoin and tokenized deposit capabilities across cross-border remittances, B2B payments, and treasury management as digital currency volumes surpassed $350 billion in 2025.
- Transaction Date: 3/28/2026
- Industry: Banks
- Type: Acquisition / Merger
- Transaction Value: $680M
Raiffeisen Bank International agreed to acquire 100% of Garanti BBVA Group Romania — comprising Garanti Bank S.A. and leasing unit Motoractive IFN S.A. — from BBVA for €591 million, a deal expected to close in Q4 2026 subject to regulatory approval. The acquisition will vault Raiffeisen Bank to Romania's third-largest bank by total assets, combining Garanti's €4 billion asset base with Raiffeisen's existing €17.5 billion Romanian portfolio serving 2.3 million customers.
- Transaction Date: 3/16/2026
- Industry: Capital Markets
- Type: Buyout / Private Equity
- Transaction Value: $349M
Perpetual agreed to divest its Wealth Management division to Bain Capital Private Equity for an initial payment of A$500 million ($349 million), plus up to A$50 million in earn-out consideration tied to performance within two years of close, with Bain receiving 15-year licenses to the "Perpetual Wealth" and "Perpetual Private" brands. Proceeds will be used to reduce debt and reinvest in Perpetual's core Asset Management and Corporate Trust businesses as the 139-year-old Australian firm simplifies its portfolio following years of rejected takeover approaches.
- Transaction Date: 3/12/2026
- Industry: Banks
- Type: Acquisition / Merger
- Transaction Value: $348.4M
Esquire Financial Holdings agreed to acquire Signature Bancorporation in an all-stock transaction valued at approximately $348 million, giving Esquire a foothold in Chicago — the country's third-largest MSA and fourth-largest legal market — to expand its national litigation banking vertical. The deal, expected to close in Q3 2026, will create a combined company with roughly $4.8 billion in assets and is projected to be 23% accretive to Esquire's GAAP EPS in 2027.
- Transaction Date: 3/2/2026
- Industry: Banks
- Type: Acquisition / Merger
- Transaction Value: $299M
Farmers National Banc Corp. completed its merger with Middlefield Banc Corp., its seventh bank acquisition in the past decade, creating a combined institution with over $7.4 billion in banking assets and 83 branches across Ohio and Pennsylvania. The deal deepens Farmers' presence in Northeast Ohio while expanding its footprint into Central and Western Ohio, including the Columbus region, which the company identified as a priority growth market.
- Transaction Date: 3/26/2026
- Industry: Financial Services
- Type: Growth Equity
- Transaction Value: $250M
Blackstone invested $250 million in Advanced Digital Gaming Technology (ADGT), a newly established payments and data intelligence platform headquartered in Abu Dhabi, formed through a partnership with Raya Holding and technology partners NRT Technology and Sightline Payments. ADGT is currently the only licensed platform in the UAE able to contract with both land-based and online gaming operators, and plans to expand its regulated payments infrastructure across the Middle East, Africa, and select international markets.
- Transaction Date: 3/4/2026
- Industry: Financial Services
- Type: Growth Equity
- Transaction Value: $195M
Ualá, the Latin American digital banking platform serving more than 11 million customers across Argentina and Mexico, raised $195 million led by Allianz X at a $3.2 billion valuation, with participation from Tencent, Soros Fund Management, and D1 Capital Partners. The round deepens the companies' existing partnership to scale integrated insurance and banking products across Latin America, a region Ualá describes as significantly underserved by traditional financial services.
- Transaction Date: 3/18/2026
- Industry: Financial Services
- Type: Growth Equity
- Transaction Value: $156M
Weaver Services, a Mumbai-based fintech housing finance platform, raised Rs 1,450 crore ($156 million) across two tranches co-led by Premji Invest and Lightspeed Venture Partners to fund the acquisition of a 75.01% controlling stake in Centrum Housing Finance, with an agreement in place to acquire the remaining 24.99% from Morgan Stanley. The combined platform — merging Centrum Housing Finance with People Home Finance, acquired in August 2025 — will operate 140 branches across India with assets under management exceeding Rs 2,000 crore, focused on affordable home loans for self-employed borrowers in tier II and tier III cities.
- Transaction Date: 3/31/2026
- Industry: Financial Services
- Type: Venture
- Transaction Value: $94M
OpenFX, the stablecoin-powered cross-border FX infrastructure platform founded in 2024 by FalconX co-founder Prabhakar Reddy, raised $94 million in Series A funding from Accel, Atomico, Lightspeed Faction, Northzone, and Pantera, on the heels of scaling from $4 billion to over $45 billion in annualized payment volume. The capital will fund expansion into Southeast Asian markets and deeper Latin American corridors as OpenFX looks to displace legacy correspondent banking infrastructure with near-instant settlement across more than 40 trading pairs.
- Transaction Date: 3/9/2026
- Industry: Financial Services
- Type: Venture
- Transaction Value: $80M
KAST, a stablecoin-native neobank founded by former Circle executive Raagulan Pathy, raised $80 million in a Series A co-led by QED Investors and Left Lane Capital, less than 18 months after launch and on the heels of scaling to more than one million users processing nearly $5 billion in annualized transaction volume. The capital will fund expansion across Latin America, North America, and the Middle East as KAST targets $100 million in annual revenue run rate in 2026, growing users and revenue at roughly 15–20% month-over-month.
At Dakota, we understand how important it is to stay current on deal activity as it happens. That’s why our editorial team continuously monitors the news for real-time updates on platform investments, add-ons, divestitures, and more to deliver daily highlights straight to your inbox through our transactions newsletter.
Inside Dakota Marketplace, the transactions tab provides structured, filterable data with deal dates, types, sectors, and financials, allowing you to build a customized feed that aligns with your focus areas.
Whether you're evaluating a new investment opportunity or tracking trends within a target sector, Dakota Marketplace helps you cut through the noise and focus on what matters most.
For more information on these transactions and a deeper dive into their industries and sub-industries, book a demo of Dakota Marketplace.
