Only 3 fintech unicorns went public in 2018 — a year that also saw fintech startups raise a record number of $100M+ mega-rounds.
At the beginning of 2018, there were 25 VC-backed fintech unicorns around the world, worth a cumulative total of almost $76B.
With all of that hype, many speculated that these highly-valued startups might take advantage of their momentum and go public
And when Dutch payments startup Adyen went public in June 2018, its IPO was a huge success: its stock surged 90% in its first day of trading, ending the day with a $15.8B valuation.
But in the end, the Adyen IPO was one of just three fintech unicorns to go public in 2018. (The other two were UK peer-to-peer (P2P) lender Funding Circle and US home improvement financing startup GreenSky).
This suggests that for many fintech unicorns, going public hasn’t been the top priority.
One reason highly-valued fintech startups — such as Affirm, Oscar, and Gusto — are able to avoid going public despite significant operating costs could be the increase in mega-rounds of $100M or more....MORE
