TECHNOLOGY
AN INITIAL PUBLIC OFFERING ( IPO ) IS A LANDMARK MOMENT IN ANY LARGE FINTECH ’ S GROWTH JOURNEY – BUT CURRENT MARKET CONDITIONS CAST DOUBT ON SOME PLANNED IPOS
There ’ s little doubt that current economic conditions are having an effect on planned IPOs . Against the backdrop of spiralling inflation , mass layoffs and tumbling valuations , many fintechs appear to be reevaluating their attitude towards going public . The result is a string of cancelled or delayed IPOs .
Fintech downturn leading to cancelled IPOs Payments giant Stripe was supposedly planning to go public at some point this year but that prospect is looking diminishingly likely . Last November , Stripe Co-founder and President John Collison admitted that an IPO was “ not an imminent event ”, while this summer he admitted that he “ did not know ” whether the firm could still justify its US $ 95bn valuation .
Stripe probably doesn ’ t need the money , raising the prospect of a direct listing instead of an IPO . The fintech secured US $ 600mn in a Series H round last March ( the same round that gave it that US $ 95bn valuation ) and followed it up with a venture round in June 2021 .
Zopa , the British digital bank , was also expected to go public by the end of this year but appears to have put those plans on hold . “ We will just have to wait for when the markets are in the right place ,” Zopa CEO Jaidev Janardana told CNBC at Money20 / 20 . “ You only want to do an IPO once , so we want to make sure we pick the right moment .”
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