Payment firms plot IPOs as the market improves | PaymentsSource

• Key insights: Payment firms are pursuing IPOs after a slump of several years. 
• What’s at stake: Investors are looking for opportunities as AI and stablecoins take off. 
• Forward look: After a few successful listings, more fintechs are seeking to go public. 

With the initial stages of Trump’s trade war and the fintech slump of 2022 and 2023 seemingly out of the way, initial public offerings are resuming in financial technology and payment industries.  

In all industries, there have been 254 IPOs in the U.S. as of Sept. 26, according to Stock Analysis 2025, noting this is 75% more than the same time in 2024. Forge Global’s most recent investors outlook said the fintech IPO market in particular has entered a “new phase of revitalization.” 

“Fintech has been one of the strongest areas in Forge’s data this summer,” Forge Global’s public relations office said in an email, noting the firms in Forge’s fintech basket gained 45% in June and 8% in July, reflecting renewed momentum in the sector. “After several years with minimal IPO activity, there’s significant accumulated investor demand for new offerings,” David Roos, a partner at Core Innovation Capital, told American Banker. But there is a higher quality bar for going public, Roos said. 

“Unlike the 2021 SPAC boom that allowed riskier, less mature businesses to access public markets, the standards today are much higher,” Roos said, referring to special purpose acquisition companies, which enable firms to go public with fewer steps than a traditional IPO. SPACs boosted IPOs during the digital financial services rush that accompanied the COVID-19 pandemic, which later led to a pullback in 2022 and 2023. 

“These fintech businesses have spent the last few years focused on profitable growth, rightsizing unit economics, and building out defensible brands. It’s no surprise that investors want to own these names” Roos said.

The investor momentum can also be found outside of publicly traded companies, according to Forge Global. Key drivers included Ramp’s recent $500 million raise at a $22.5 billion valuation (up 36.8%) and Kraken’s $500 million raise at a $15 billion valuation (up 40%), both of which point to sustained private-market demand for scale fintech platforms.

“The IPO window for fintech has also reopened in recent months,” Forge said, noting Circle’s June IPO priced shares at $31 (above the original $24–$26 range), opened at $69, and traded as high as $103.75. Chime’s June 12 IPO priced at $27, opened at $43, and closed near $37, with shares trading as much as 59% above issue price intraday, Forge said. 

“The fintechs we see today are tough, agile and profitable, they know their target customers, and their customers trust them,” Ben Prade, a partner at Bullhound Capital, told American Banker. (Bullhound has invested in Klarna). 

The AI revolution will enable fintechs to reduce costs and improve their service using the proprietary customer data they have built up, Prade said. 

“Fintechs have elbowed their way onto the top table of the finance sector. No longer challengers, they are here to stay,” Prade said. 

Here are some payments and financial technology companies that have priced IPOs in recent weeks, or are planning to list soon.  

Circle

The cryptocurrency company which issues the USDC stablecoin went public in June, riding the GENIUS Act’s passage to robust investor demand as shares surged more than $95 in the first hour of trading. Circle was trading at $125 per share on Friday. 

Circle’s IPO was seen as a bellwether for the digital asset industry following campaign contributions during the 2024 presidential election as cryptocurrency companies pushed for favorable legislation after restrictive Biden-era policies limited banks’ participation in crypto.

Circle’s IPO has been accompanied by an aggressive product pipeline. The company filed for an OCC national trust bank charter and partnered with FIS to offer bank stablecoin payments. It additionally launched a payments partner network in April to build a network for stablecoin payments.

Klarna

Klarna, a Swedish financial institution which is best known in the U.S. for its buy now/pay later products, began trading on the New York Stock Exchange in September.

Klarna’s listing came five months after the company initially sought to go public, only to delay the move as Trump’s tariffs roiled the stock market. Much like Circle’s IPO signaled investor appetite for digital asset firms, Klarna’s IPO demonstrated strength in the border fintech market. It also comes as Klarna adds savings accounts and other financial products as it seeks to move deeper into the U.S. banking market. Klarna’s stock was most recently trading at about $40 per share, down 6% from its listing price.

Chime

Chime Financial’s shares surged 59% in its Nasdaq debut in June, valuing the digital bank at $18.4 billion. Chime’s stock opened at $43, compared with the IPO price of $27. It has since dipped to $21. Chime has launched several consumer and back-end technology products in the past year, including $500 “instant loans” and an in-house processor referred to by the company as ChimeCore.

In its first earnings report, Chime reported revenue of $528 million for the quarter ending June, a 37% increase from $384 million a year earlier. 

Wise

Wise is not planning an IPO per se, but it does intend to list in the U.S., keeping its listing in London as a secondary location. 

The company, which is headquartered in London and opened an office in Austin to support its American plans, says a primary U.S. listing would help it accelerate the company’s expansion and would bring capital market benefits to Wise. It also noted the U.S. is the “biggest opportunity in the world for its products and would enable better access to the world’s most liquid capital markets.”

Wise was founded in 2011 and changed its name from TransferWise ahead of its 2021 London IPO. The company competes with PayPal, Block and Stripe, and correspondent banks that manage cross-border payments. 

Lendbuzz

Auto lender Lendbuzz in September filed for an IPO, testing the market for AI-powered auto lending. The Boston-based firm is reportedly targeting a valuation of around $1.5 billion.

Lendbuzz uses AI to underwrite loans to consumers with limited credit history, targeting underserved communities. Investors have poured funds into AI companies over the past year, as new forms of AI are generating demand in banking and other industries. As Lendbuzz plots its listing, it cautioned that immigration policy could be a potential risk factor for the investors. 

Wealthfront

Wealthfront, which sells wealth management and digital financial services, in June confidentially filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission for an IPO. Wealthfront has its roots as a robo advisor, more recently adding an “Autopilot” tool for saving and investing, which it calls an “automated savings plan.” UBS initially made a deal to acquire Wealthfront for $1.4 billion in cash in January 2022, but the deal was terminated in September of that year. The Swiss bank instead purchased a $69.7 million financing note that is convertible into Wealthfront shares.

SumUp

The London-based SumUp is reportedly contacting investment bankers to plan an IPO that would price in early 2026 and value the company at about $18 billion. SumUp sells point of sale technology to small businesses, and in recent years has branched out into consumer payments, a similar strategy to Block and PayPal, which offer products to both merchants and consumers. SumUp, which did not return a request for comment, has not decided on a location for the listing.