Sept 15 (Reuters) - U.S.-Israeli fintech Pagaya is close to an agreement to go public through a merger with a special-purpose acquisition company in a deal that values the company at about $9 billion, the Wall Street Journal reported https://www.wsj.com/articles/fintech-startup-pagaya-nears-9-billion-spac-deal-11631678461?mod=latest_headlines early Wednesday.

Pagaya is nearing a deal to combine with the SPAC EJF Acquisition Corp, according to the WSJ report, citing people people familiar with the matter. The merger could be announced as soon as this week, it added.

(Reporting by Aakriti Bhalla in Bengaluru; Editing by Rashmi Aich)