2025: The Year of FinTech IPOs
Instead of saying “Oh my god, you’re such a Capricorn”, the Chinese (and many Asian cultures) would identify themselves using animals. 2025 is the year of the Snake, an animal that represents intelligence and creativity.
Are FinTechs who IPO-ed or are going to IPO in 2025 also smart?
What is an IPO?
Initial Public Offerings (IPOs) are a way for private companies to raise capital. Private companies go to an underwriter (usually Investment Banks) to help them plan and sell the shares, file boring old forms with regulators, hype up the sale and go public on a stock exchange.
The first group of investors get first dibs in the “primary market” and once the stock starts trading on the exchange, the public can trade the shares freely on the “secondary market”.
An IPO helps companies raise capital, gain visibility, and allow early investors to eventually cash out. It’s a complicated and tedious process, and companies have tried alternative ways to list on stock exchanges such as a direct listing without selling shares (like how Wise did in London) and through “reverse mergers” with Special Purpose Acquisition Companies (SPACs) which deserve a standalone blog post by itself.
So, now that we have a quick overview on IPOs, let’s take a look at how the market has treated new, public FinTechs so far in 2025.
Who started trading so far?
The only “official” IPO so far in 2025 is the big green bull — eToro. It is a multi-asset investing/trading platform launched in 2007, with its most popular feature being “Copy” trading where you can mimic the trades of popular investors on the platform. The IPO was priced at 52 USD per share, but it opened on the secondary market at 69.69 USD (I’m not kidding). Underwriters generally underprice IPOs to give these companies a huge “pop” on the first day of trading.
There was another stockbroker/trading app that also started trading on the NASDAQ — Webull. This wasn’t an IPO though, it was a reverse merger with SK Growth Opportunities (a SPAC) which was briefly touched upon earlier. SPAC mergers also generally result in a “pop” on the first day of trading. Webull was so hyped up in the first few days that it almost reached Robinhood’s valuation.
Trading apps, stockbrokers and investment platforms were raking in the money for the past 2–3 years as retail investing took off. eToro and Webull also benefitted from this, and rationally used this recent growth story to list their shares on public markets.
Who‘s up next?
Since 2022, many FinTech unicorns (including eToro and Webull) have been postponing their plans to IPO and/or become a public company. Valuations were horrible back then, companies were burning through money and the overall mood was just depressing. As FinTechs pivoted towards profitability and markets are becoming more optimistic, more companies are looking to IPO.
So far, Circle and Chime have also submitted their filings to the regulator to IPO. Their shares could start trading as soon as June or July 2025!
Circle is the issuer of the second largest Stablecoin, USD Coin. The Stablecoin market generally does well when Crypto is doing well. Since Bitcoin is now comfortably in the six-figures and the industry recovered from the infamous scandals like FTX and Celsius, Circle is also doing well. For Crypto to gain more adoption, trust and fame, it makes sense for Circle to start trading as a public company. Just like Coinbase, being a public company can be a great PR move and trust campaign for the company.
Chime is a US digital money app. It is technically a payments company and not a bank. In my view, Chime’s growth story is kind of driven by the typical Venture Capital growth model — throwing freebies and incentives to get users. Combined with a slick app and adverts with NBA superstars, Chime has grown to become a powerhouse and it makes sense for them to capitalise on high valuations. Like Circle, becoming public can help Chime further in their expansion efforts. This level of trust can be helpful when they actually do apply for a banking license.
Besides payments companies, neobanks like Monzo and Revolut are also flirting with IPO-ing in 2025. I think it is unlikely for Klarna, Plaid and Stripe to IPO in 2025 because of recent underperformance (Klarna), share sales (Stripe) and funding rounds (Plaid).
For Klarna especially, who became a meme after partnering with DoorDash to allow users to finance their late night kebab order, the conditions aren’t really right to go public right now. Buy Now Pay Later is under huge scrutiny from both regulators and users over irresponsible advertising, predatory behaviour and lack of regulation. In fact, the UK is starting to regulate them more seriously as announced earlier in May. Underperformance and a shaky regulatory environment are two major headwinds that would take billions off Klarna’s valuation.
In conclusion
2025 was a great year for markets (even with Trump’s nonsense). Valuations have never been higher before and the tides have lifted the FinTech sector too. It totally makes sense for companies to raise money when there is hype.
FinTechs entered 2025 with strong 2024 results and the drive towards profitability made them more attractive to potential investors. Potential tailwinds like deregulation (in both US and other developed economies) and interest rate cuts are making more investors turn their heads towards growth investing.
The FinTechs with a compelling growth story, strong performance and signs of profitability will continue to take the market by storm in 2025 and beyond. 2025 has indeed been the Year of the FinTech IPOs, and upcoming FinTechs looking to go public are set to keep the momentum going.
