Hiroki Takeuchi, Co-Founder and CEO of GoCardless.
Z Jameson | Bloomberg | Getty Images
LISBON, Portugal — Financial technology unicorns aren’t in a rush to go public after buying later payments firm Clarina filed for a US IPO — but they’re keeping a close eye on it. When will the market open? .
Last week, Klarna made a confidential filing to go public in the U.S., ending months of speculation about where the Swedish digital payments firm would list. The timing of the IPO is still unclear, and Klarna has yet to decide on the price or number of shares it will issue to the public.
Still, the development prompted market observers from fintech circles to ask whether the move heralds a resurgence in large fintech IPOs. For now, it doesn’t look like it — however, the founders say they will watch the IPO market, pricing and ultimately the stock’s performance.
Hiroki Takeuchi, CEO of online payments startup GoCardless, said last week that it was not yet time for his company to fire the starting gun on an IPO. He sees listing as a milestone in the journey rather than an end goal.
“The markets have been challenging for the past few years,” Takeuchi, whose business GoCardless last valued at more than $2 billion, said on a CNBC-moderated panel at the Web Summit tech conference in Lisbon, Portugal.
“We need to focus on building a better business,” Takeuchi said, adding that if the startup gets it right, “the rest will follow”. GoCardless specializes in recurring payments, transactions that routinely leave a customer’s bank account — such as a monthly donation to a charity.
Lucy Liu, co-founder of cross-border payments firm Airwallex, agreed with Takeuchi and said that now is not the right time for Airwallex to go public either. In a separate interview, Liu pointed out to CNBC what his fellow Airwallex co-founder and CEO Jack Zhang had previously said — that the firm expects to be “ready for an IPO” by 2026.
“Every company is different,” Liu said on stage, sitting next to Takeuchi on the same panel. He said Airwallex is focusing more on becoming the best in solving frictions in global cross-border payments.
The IPO is one goal in the company’s trajectory — but not the final milestone, according to Liu. “We are in constant dialogue with our investor shareholders,” he said, adding that “this will change in due course.”
‘Stars align’ for fintech IPOs
One thing is for sure, though – analysts are much more optimistic about the outlook for fintech IPOs than before.
“We outlined five handles to open. [IPO] window, and I think those stars are aligning in terms of macro, interest rates, politics, the election is over, volatility,” Navina Rajan, senior research analyst at private market data firm PitchBook, told CNBC.
“It’s definitely in a better place, but at the end of the day, we don’t know what’s going to happen, America has a new president,” Rajan continued. “It will also be interesting to see the timing and valuation of the IPO.”
Fintech companies have raised nearly 6.2 billion euros ($6.6 billion) in venture capital since the start of the year through Oct. 30, according to data from PitchBook.
Jaydev Janardana, CEO and co-founder of British digital bank Zopa, told CNBC that an IPO is not an immediate priority for his firm.
“To be honest, it’s not at the top of my mind,” Janardana told CNBC. “I think we’re fortunate to be supportive and long-term shareholders who also support future growth.”
He said the private markets are currently the most appropriate place to build a technology business focused on investing in growth.
However, Zopa’s CEO added that he sees signs pointing to a more favorable IPO market in the next two years, with the US opening likely in 2025.
According to Janardana, this should mean that Europe becomes more open to IPOs next year. He did not say where Zopa plans to go publicly.
