Fintech IPO

Latest Fintech IPOs And The Most Anticipated Stock Listing Of 2017

An initial public offering (IPO) is the first sale of stock by a company to the public. For startups, it is a crucial moment and a sign of success.

An IPO raises needed capital to help a company to grow. It also opens many financial doors for companies: these can get better rates when they issue debt; mergers and acquisitions become easier to do because stock can be issued as part of the deal; and trading in the open markets means liquidity, making it possible to implement things like employee stock ownership plans.

2016 has seen a number of Fintech companies going public. Today, we take a look at some of them and further unveil the most anticipated IPOs or Stock Listing of 2017.

Nets (Copenhagen)

Nordic payments firm Nets A/S started trading in Copenhagen in September. The IPO valued the company at 30 billion kroner (US$4.5 billion), making it the second-largest listing in Europe so far this year after the sale raised 15.75 billion kroner.

Nets is a provider of payments, cards and information services. The company has been known as Nets since 2009, but has a history that goes back to 1968.

Kyckr (Australia)

Irish fintech startup Kyckr raised over €3.4 million after listing on the Australian Securities Exchange (ASX) in Sydney in September.

Kyckr is a compliance firm founded in 2007 by Rob Leslie and Ben Cronin. The company provides “know-your-business” compliance services to clients in sectors vulnerable to fraud and money laundering. One of Kyckr’s clients is Bank of Ireland.

ChimpChange (USA)

ChimpChange, based in Hollywood, aims at disrupting the banking sector with an app that lets users send each other money using mobile phone numbers with attaching debit Mastercard.

The company landed on the ASX in June after completing a A$15 million capital raise at 80 cent a share, valuing the company at A$50.8 million.

MyBucks (Germany)

Luxembourg-based fintech services company MyBucks S.A. raised €15.5 million in its IPO on the Deutsche Bourse’s Frankfurt Stock Exchange in June.

MyBucks operates GetBucks, GetSure and GetBanked brands and provides financial products and services to the low and middle-income consumer segment, predominantly in emerging markets of Sub-Saharan Africa.

Afterpay (Australia)

Australian Payments company Afterpay listed on the ASX in May. A total of 25 million new shares at A$1.00 each were issued to new shareholders to raise A$25 million in equity.

Afterpay facilitates commerce between retail merchants and their end-customers by offering a “buy now, pay later” service that does not require end-customers to enter into a traditional loan or pay any upfront fees or interest.

FreeAgent (London)

In November, FreeAgent raised £10.7million in its IPO on the London Stock Exchange’s AIM market for small, growth-oriented companies. The company raised the cash with a market capitalization of £34 million.

Edinburgh-based FreeAgent provides cloud-based accounting software for micro-businesses.

4 Upcoming Hot Fintech IPOs Candidates for 2017

Alibaba Group (Hong Kong)

Among the most highly anticipated IPOs, there is Ant Financial, the financial services arm of Alibaba Group, which unveiled plans for an IPO in Hong Kong in the first half of 2017. The IPO would
likely be among the largest ever in Hong Kong.

Alipay, a popular online payments services provider serving more than 400 million users. In April, the firm completed a US$4.5 billion Series B funding round. The round gave Ant Financial a valuation of roughly US$60 billion, making it China’s most valuable fintech company.

Lufax (China)

Lufax, China’s biggest peer-to-peer lending platform backed by Ping An Insurance is also planning a Hong Kong IPO, which could raise $5 billion. Lufax, valued at $18.5 billion in a January

fundraising, would be the first peer-to-peer platform to list in Hong Kong.

The volume of Chinese P2P loans stood at more than 100 billion USD last August, more than 20 times levels seen in January 2014, according to a Reuters Report. Lufox was named the Number 2 Top Fintech Unicorn after Ant Financial.

Ayondo (Singapore)

European fintech/social trading firm ayondo is planning a listing on the Singapore Exchange (SGX). The move would make it the first fintech company to be listed on the exchange. The group, which specializes in financial trading technologies, is reportedly in advanced negotiations with property developer Starland, a SGX-listed company, on a Reserve Takeover transaction.

In an interview with Fintechnews ayondo’s CEO confirmed: “The stock listing will happen in the first half of 2017 and we will fully concentrate on this transaction.” The company plans to make Social Trading popular in Asia.

Stripe (USA/Ireland)

Also the Digital payment Fintech Startup Stripe is a hot candidate. The world’s largest developer-oriented commerce company, helping small and large companies accept web and mobile payments

It has just raised new funding that values the company over $9 billion—and makes its founders the youngest billionaires in Ireland and probably the youngest Fintech billionaires.

Featured Picture via Pixapay