Five Fintechs that could IPO after Klarna

After Swedish payment group Klarna’s Investors, which are the initial $17 billion offer, are pondering which big fintech names will be made public.

Klarna jumped out 30% on the day of the New York IPO and then rose by about 15%. The shares fell to another $42.92 by Friday, but the IPO price has risen by about 7% from $40.

The debut showed how Wall Street would be more welcoming to the list of bumper fintechs. Klarna’s online trading platform Etoro, Stablecoin Issuer Round and crypto exchanges strong Everything was revealed at a positive first day reception.

Gemini, a crypto exchange founded by Cameron and Tyler Winklevos, surged 14% in IPOs on Friday.

“I think the Klarna IPO will be viewed positively by some of the other scaled vendors,” Gautam Pillai, head of fintech research at British Investtech Bank Peel Hunt, told CNBC.

After Klarna there is a crowded pipeline of fintech names that could be next to the IPO. CNBC is thinking about which companies look the most promising.

Digital payments company Stripe has been considered a candidate for IPOs for many years. Stripe has been a private company for 15 years since its founding, and its founder and brothers John and Patrick Collison have long resisted the pressure to open their business.

But that doesn’t mean that the stock market list is not in Stripe’s mind. Collison told employees in 2023 that Stripe would decide to allow the stock to be sold through a secondary offering within the following year, or enable employees to sell the stock.

Finally, in January, Stripe opted to sell secondary stocks, valued the company at $91.5 billion.

That doesn’t mean that Stripe couldn’t pursue a further stock market debut. Many Fintech Unicorn CEOs have focused on Klarna’s IPO performance for signs of when it will be the right moment.

Revolut is widely viewed as a potential future fintech IPO candidate. Digital Banking Unicorn told CNBC last week that it recently gave employees the opportunity to sell stocks in the secondary market at a massive $75 billion valuation, giving them the opportunity to outperform some major UK banks by market value.

“As part of our commitment to our employees, we provide employees with the opportunity to gain liquidity regularly,” a spokesman for Revolut told CNBC at the time. “As aside stock sales for employees are currently underway and we will not comment further until it is completed.”

The Secondary Round offers staff the opportunity to buy some time to keep Revolute private for long periods of time and leave some of its holdings. But at the same time, Revolut is now one of the most valuable private fintech companies in the world.

As for Revolut’s list, the US appears to be the most likely location for now. Co-founder and CEO Nikolay Storonsky is openly speaking about his preference for the US list due to issues with the London IPO market. Last year, he told the 20VC podcast that it would be “not reasonable” to be released in the UK.

British Digital Bank Monzo, which recently achieved a valuation of $5.9 billion in secondary share sales, is another candidate for the open market.

Earlier this year, a report emerged from Sky News, who said that Monzo lined up bankers to tackle an IPO that could take place in the first half of 2026.

However, during a fireside discussion hosted by SXSW London’s CNBC, Monzo CEO TS Anil said the IPO was “not something we’re paying attention to right now.”

“Our focus is on scaling the business, continuing to grow, double again, reaching more customers, building more products, and continuing to drive big economic outcomes behind the scenes,” Anil said at the time.

Anil did not comment on where Monzo would list in the case of the IPO, but he emphasized that the company is “deeply committed” to having its global headquarters in London.

Monzo rival Neobank Starling Bank is reportedly considering an initial public offering in the US as part of its expansion plan.

On Thursday, Bloomberg reported that Sterling hired Jodi Bhagat, former president of software company Global Banking, Human Sciences and Technology, to lead the growth of the U.S. engine technology unit.

Sterling was unable to comment when asked about her listing plan by CNBC.

Last year, Starling CEO Raman Bhatia spoke about the bank’s plans to expand globally through Engine, a software platform Starling sells to other companies.

“I’m very bullish about Sterling’s best, this approach to internationalising its own technology,” Batia said in a fireplace chat at the Money 20/20 conference moderated by CNBC.

Sterling was last personally valued at £2.5 billion ($3.4 billion) in the 2022 funding round. However, reports say the company is looking to earn a £4 billion valuation in its upcoming secondary share sales.

Though it’s a little known name, the fintech company Payhawk, set in Bulgaria, also has IPO ambitions.

The spending management platform was valued at $1 billion in 2022, bringing revenues of 23.4 million euros ($27.4 million) at 85% year-on-year in 2024.

“We definitely see the IPO window open,” Payhawk CEO and co-founder Hristo Borisov told CNBC in an interview earlier this month. However, he emphasized that “we are looking more of the horizon there for five years.”

“If you look at the majority of IPOs, the majority of these IPOs are companies with ARRs (repeated annual revenue) of $400 million to $500 million,” Borisov said. “That’s our goal.”

There are other fintechs below the line that appear to be potential IPO candidates, but the trajectory is less clear.

Brad Garlinghouse, CEO of blockchain company Ripple, told CNBC last January that the company had explored markets outside the US for IPOs through its aggressive crypto enforcement regime under former investigative and exchange committee chief Gary Gensler.

That could change now thanks to President Donald Trump’s custody stance. Garlinghouse said last year that Ripple put its IPO plans on hold. The startup was recently valued at $15 billion.

Germany’s N26 is another potential IPO candidate. The Digital Bank was valued at $9 billion in the 2021 funding round.

But it faces some set-offs. N26 co-founder Valentin Stalf recently resigned as CEO after facing investor pressure over regulatory failures.