Texas-based fintech firm GloriFi to shut down – WSJ

(Reuters) – Texas-based fintech firm GloriFi is shutting down and laid off most of its employees, the Wall Street Journal reported on Monday, citing people familiar with the matter.

The company’s decision comes after it failed to secure funding needed to carry its operations through the first quarter, the report said, citing an email from GloriFi’s chief marketing and communications officer Cathy Landtroop to employees.

U.S. fintechs have had a tough year on Wall Street, with investors dumping such stocks alongside other technology shares as interest rates surge, raising risks of a recession.

In July, the company had agreed to go public in the United States by merging with special purpose acquisition company (SPAC) DHC Acquisition Corp, in a deal that valued the fintech at $1.7 billion.

A SPAC is a company lacking any operations at the time of listing, made solely to raise capital for merging with a private company and take it public.

GloriFi did not immediately respond to a Reuters request for comment.

The fintech firm’s operations were aimed at customers who saw Wall Street as too liberal and wanted a bank that shared their values, the report said.

(Reporting by Anirban Chakroborti in Bengaluru; Editing by Krishna Chandra Eluri)