- Key insight: Green Dot, which commenced a review of its strategic options in March, said Monday that it will sell itself in two parts.
- Supporting data: Smith Ventures, founded by serial entrepreneur Bill Smith, will acquire Green Dot's fintech platform for $690 million in cash.
- Forward look: Both transactions are expected to close during the second quarter of next year.
The consumer fintech Green Dot, which
Smith Ventures in Birmingham, Alabama, will acquire and privatize Green Dot's nonbank fintech business, the companies said Monday in a press release. At the same time, CommerceOne Financial, also based in Birmingham, will acquire Green Dot Bank.
Together, CommerceOne Financial, the holding company for CommerceOne Bank, and Green Dot Bank will create a new bank holding company and become the "exclusive issuing bank" for Green Dot's nonbank fintech business, the press release said. The agreement includes a seven-year deal in which the bank will sponsor the fintech's platform.
Smith Ventures, a private equity firm founded in 2017, has previously invested in CommerceOne Bank, a full-service commercial and private bank that specializes in "curated" services.
Bill Smith, a serial tech entrepreneur, currently serves on CommerceOne's board of directors. He's been familiar with Green Dot for years. In 2014, he sold one of his startups, Insight Card Services, to Green Dot.
Smith later founded and served as CEO of Shipt, an online grocery delivery service, which was eventually sold to Target. He is also the founder of Landing, a furnished apartment rental firm.
Under the deal announced Monday, Smith Ventures will pay $690 million in cash for Green Dot's fintech platform. Of that total, $155 million will be invested into the combined Green Dot Bank-Commerce One entity to bolster liquidity and regulatory capital, and $65 million will be used to pay off existing debts. The remaining $470 million will be distributed to Green Dot shareholders, who will receive a minimum of approximately $14.23 per share, the firms said.
The transactions, which require regulatory approval, are expected to close during the second quarter of 2026, the companies said.
Bringing together Green Dot Bank and CommerceOne is an opportunity to unite "a proven loan generation platform with an exciting deposit-generating engine," Kenneth Till, CEO of CommerceOne, told analysts during a conference call Monday.
The combination "should position the new CommerceOne to become a diversified bank with multiple growth drivers, top-tier profitability and substantial capital generation," Till said.
Green Dot Bank has about $5 billion of assets and $4.7 billion of deposits. CommerceOne, founded in 2018, is substantially smaller, with $840 million of assets and $745 million deposits.
In addition to the opportunity to generate more earnings, the combination of the two banks should have a meaningful impact on CommerceOne's liquidity position, Till added.
"These deposits and the ongoing growth in deposits from our partnership with the embedded finance platform provide our loan generation engine plenty of liquidity to grow," he said. "This deposit generation capability provides a perfect compliment to the lending business that we've built and continue to invest in."
Green Dot recorded $52 million of losses during the first nine months of 2025, following a $26.7 million loss for all of last year, under generally accepted accounting principles.
Green Dot founder and CEO
Since Streit's departure, Green Dot has had a revolving cast of CEOs. Dan Henry, who was hired to succeed Streit, was fired in 2022. He was followed by George Gresham, who lasted in the role until March 2025, when William Jacobs, Green Dot board's chair, was named interim CEO.
Cristopher Kennedy, an analyst at William Blair, wrote in a research note Monday that the deal may face some challenges.
Though the sale of Green Dot in two chunks offers "attractive" long-term opportunities, he wrote, he also believes that "management changes, customer losses, evolving business mix and continued macro-related headwinds cloud the visibility around growth and margin expansion in the near term."
Key risks include "customer concentration, pressure on the retail business" and "profitable execution," Kennedy wrote.
Founded in 1999, Green Dot was a pioneer in the prepaid card business, and its fortunes rose alongside its relationship with retail giant Walmart.
Starting more than a decade ago, it was hurt by the arrival of a raft of lower-cost competitors.
Its stock price reached a peak of more than $85 in 2018, and climbed as high as $63 in late 2020, but has since tumbled. Shares in the company were trading at $11.78 on Monday, largely unchanged from Friday.
Kevin Wack contributed to this report.
