Congratulations, Grasshopper Bank!

Congratulations to Mike Butler and the Grasshopper Bank team on the definitive agreement to be acquired by Enova International. This is a compelling combination of two complementary financial businesses. Klaros Group is thrilled to be a part of the Grasshopper Bank journey. When Grasshopper acquired the Auto Club Trust bank from Auto Club Group in 2024, Klaros led the related capital raise.

There’s a lot to like about this transaction, particularly the way the two businesses complement each other. As the companies described it in the press release, the transaction combines Enova’s market-leading consumer and small business online lending platform with Grasshopper’s national bank charter and digital and fintech deposit gathering engines to create a powerful digital bank with a bigger geographic footprint and strong asset and earnings growth potential. 

As my colleague Brian Graham, who joined the Grasshopper board following the closing of the Auto Club Trust merger in spring 2025, noted in Banking Dive, we expect to see the number of such transactions increase in 2026. In the current regulatory environment, transactions pairing nonbank lenders with established banks able to gather deposits efficiently through partnerships are both possible and compelling.