Fintech unicorns are watching Klarna’s IPO for signs of when the window will open again

LISBON, Portugal — Financial technology unicorns are in no rush to go public after buying now, pay later firm Klarna has filed for a U.S. initial public offering — but they’re keeping an eye on it for signs of when the market opens again.

Last week, Klarna filed confidentially to go public in the US, ending months of speculation about where the Swedish digital payments company would emerge. The timing of the IPO is still unclear and Klarna has yet to decide on the price or number of shares it will issue to the public.

Still, the development caused a stir in fintech circles, with market watchers wondering whether the move marks the start of a resurgence in major fintech IPOs. For the time being, that does not seem to be the case. However, the founders say they will keep an eye on the IPO market, pricing and ultimately stock performance.

Hiroki Takeuchi, CEO of online payment startup GoCardless, said last week that it is not yet time for his company to kick off an initial public offering. He sees listing as more of a milestone on a journey than an end goal.

“The markets have been challenging in recent years,” Takeuchi, whose company GoCardless was most recently valued at more than $2 billion, said in a CNBC-moderated panel at the Web Summit technology conference in Lisbon, Portugal.

“We need to focus on building a better company,” Takeuchi added, noting that “the rest will follow” if the startup does that well. GoCardless specializes in recurring payments, transactions that come out of a consumer’s bank account in a routine manner, such as a monthly donation to charity.

Lucy Liu, co-founder of cross-border payments company Airwallex, agreed with Takeuchi, saying this is also not the right time for Airwallex to go public. In a separate interview, Liu pointed out to CNBC what her co-founder and CEO of Airwallex, Jack Zhang, has said previously: that the company expects to be “IPO-ready” by 2026.

“Every company is different,” Liu said on stage, sitting next to Takeuchi on the same panel. Airwallex is more focused on becoming the best at solving friction in global cross-border payments, she said.

An IPO is a goal in the company’s journey, but Liu says it is not the final milestone. “We are in constant discussions with our investor shareholders,” she said, adding that this will change “when the time is right.”

However, one thing is certain: analysts are now much more optimistic about the prospects for fintech IPOs than before.

“We have outlined five handles to open the door [IPO] window, and I think those stars are aligned in terms of macroeconomic conditions, interest rates, politics, elections being out of the way, and volatility,” Navina Rajan, senior research analyst at private market data firm PitchBook, told to CNBC.

“It’s definitely in a better place, but ultimately we don’t know what’s going to happen. There is a new president in the US,” Rajan continued. “It will be interesting to see the timing of the IPO and also the valuation.”

Fintech companies raised about 6.2 billion euros ($6.6 billion) in venture capital from the start of the year through Oct. 30, according to data from PitchBook.

Jaidev Janardana, CEO and co-founder of British digital bank Zopa, told CNBC that an IPO is not an immediate priority for his company.

“Honestly, this is not my priority,” Janardana told CNBC. “I think we continue to be fortunate that we have supportive long-term shareholders who also support future growth.”

He suggested that private markets are still currently the most accommodating place to build a technology company focused on investing in growth.

However, Zopa’s CEO added that he sees signs of a more favorable IPO market in the coming years, with the US likely to open in 2025.

According to Janardana, this should mean that Europe is more open to IPOs the following year. He has not announced where Zopa wants to go public.