Could 2024 be the year of fintech IPOs? It’s entirely possible, according to F-Prime Capital’s State of Fintech 2024 report report.
F-Prime — a venture capital firm with over $4.5 billion in assets under management that tracks the performance of emerging, publicly traded and privately held financial technology companies — remains naturally optimistic about the fintech sector, noting that: ““Overall, fintech companies have captured less than 10% of financial services revenue, while many large-scale private fintech companies generate revenues exceeding $1 billion, continue to grow rapidly and are expected to go public.”
“There are a lot of large companies currently filing or considering going public,” F-Prime says.
To be clear, when F-Prime refers to fintech, it’s lumping together financial technology and crypto/blockchain startups. Here at TC, we tend to separate our coverage of the two, though it could be argued that crypto definitely falls under fintech. For the purposes of this article, however, we’re going to focus on some of the non-crypto-focused companies that have the potential to go public this year.
It remains to be seen whether any of these companies will actually take the plunge; we have to say, we’d be thrilled if just one of them filed that S-1 form to give us a better idea of how much money these companies are (or aren’t) actually making.
Summit
As reported by Dallas innovates Last December, “two years after attempting to go public via a SPAC merger that valued it at $4.7 billion after the money, Apex is looking to do it the old-fashioned way with a direct filing with the SEC… TThe stock trading authorization company filed a confidential filing with the SEC, saying that “the total number of shares to be offered and the price range for the proposed offering have not yet been determined.”
Band
In January 2023, it was reported that Stripe had has set itself a 12-month deadline to go publiceither through a direct listing or by conducting a private market transaction, such as a fundraising and a public tender offer.
Well, it’s been 12 months and we haven’t heard anything about an IPO. But the payments giant has been raising more capital in the past year. Last March, Stripe announced that it had raised over $6.5 billion in a Series I funding round at a valuation of $50 billion. It was previously valued at $95 billion, making it one of the most valuable private fintech companies in the world. In November 2022, Stripe dismissed 14% of its staff, or about 1,120 people. But the fintech continues to diversify. Last June, TechCrunch reported that Stripe had acquired a (non-fintech!) startup and announced an expansion of its issuing product to credit.
Klarna
Swedish fintech Klarna confirmed to TechCrunch last November that it was taking steps “in preparation for a potential IPO.” The company said it had initiated a legal entity restructuring process to create a holding company in the United Kingdom “as an important first step” in its IPO plans, according to a Klarna spokesperson. The move follows a positive third quarter Klarna reported a profit and revenue up 30% to about $550 million. Creating a new legal entity at the top of the company’s corporate structure would make it easier to list publicly, the spokesperson added. Its most recent valuation was $6.7 billionwhich was down 85% from The announced valuation is $45.6 billion. a year before.
Lendbuzz
Lendbuzz, a fintech company that applies artificial intelligence to provide auto loans to people with no credit history, said in December:hired investment banks for IPO which could value it at more than $2 billion,” as reported by Reuters. In June 2021, TechCrunch reported that the The car financing platform had raised $300 million in debt financing and $60 million in equity financing in financing.
Carillon
Rumors have been circulating for some time that Chime is eyeing public markets. Once valued at 25 billion dollarsthe neobank was initially, As TickerNerd reports, “everything was set for a March 2022 launch with a valuation between $35 billion and $45 billion,” but then the markets changed their minds. In November 2022, the company announced that it was dismissal 12% of its workforce, or around 160 people. Recent reports assess the company’s valuation at nearly $6.7 billionand it’s possible that Chime will decide to take the plunge this year, given that it was planned for market entry end of 2023, according to Investing.com.
Plaid
Last October, TechCrunch reported that Plaid had has hired former Expedia CFO Eric Hart to serve as CFO, a typically pivotal step in a private company’s journey to the public markets. Then today, the company announced it has hired Cloudflare’s chief product officer, Jen Taylor, to be its first president. When asked if the move meant the company was planning to go public, a spokesperson told TechCrunch, “I can confirm that a potential IPO is something we’re moving toward, but we don’t have any details or timeline to share beyond that.” Plaid started out as a company that connected consumers’ bank accounts to financial apps, but has since gradually expanded its offerings to provide a more comprehensive onboarding experience. It was nearly acquired by Visa for $5.3 billion before regulators put the brakes on that deal — in what some called a blessing in disguise.
Ripple/Taste/Share
THE HR technology space has gotten really hot, really fast, and these three companies are among the hottest in the industry. Rippling last March was able to secure $500 million in new funding as SVB was collapsing. Last June, we discovered that Gusto, in its most recent financial year (the 12 months ended April 30, 2023), had generated revenues of more than $500 millionIn January 2023, Deel revealed that it had reached $295 million in annual recurring revenue (ARR) by the end of 2022. In November, that figure was reportedly reached $400 millionInterestingly, Rippling has been vocal about its rivalry with the other two companies. At TechCrunch Disrupt 2022, CEO Parker Conrad spoke about Rippling being enter the territory of Deel. Already in 2020, Rippling had attacked Gusto with a billboard stating: “Are you outgrowing Gusto? Quick change.”
Brex/Ramp/Navan
The spend management space is also crowded with many players vying for market share, including Brex, Ramp, Airbase, Navan (formerly TripActions) and Mesh Payments, among others. So far, Navan is the only one to go this far confidentially file an IPO application — for a valuation of $12 billion. But that was in September 2022 and we haven’t really heard anything about it since. Last December, the company laid off 5% of its staff, or 145 people. Brex, who was valued at $12.3 billion two years ago, had two series of layoffs over the past 18 months, and is reportedly working to reduce its cash burn. raised $300 million Last August, the company was valued 28% lower, at $5.8 billion. So far, it has not laid off any staff. Asked about its IPO plans, CEO and co-founder Eric Glyman recently told TC that The company was “excited to explore the IPO process eventually, but did not have a specific timeline for doing so.”
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