A look back, and a look ahead, at fintech IPOs

The IPO dam finally broke in 2025, with several fintech companies finally taking the plunge into the public markets.

Some fintechs made a strong impression in their public debuts. But most of them have since seen their share prices decrease, as initial enthusiasm settled. Notably, the stablecoin and blockchain companies have held on to the most impressive gains.

So as the new year kicks off, we thought it would be fun to take a look back at those companies’ performances, as well as speculate which startups might go public in 2026. Plus, we got commentary from several VCs about what’s ahead for 2026!

Let’s start with the lookback:

IPO date: June 5, 2025

IPO price: $31.00 per share

Ticker symbol: (NYSE: CRCL)

First-day trading: • Opened ~$69–$70 and spiked intraday • Closed first day at $83.23, up around 168% from IPO price

Current stock price (Jan 16, 2026): $78.61

Circle stands out because it had one of the most dramatic first-day gains among major 2025 IPOs, nearly tripling from its offering price.

Chime’s IPO seemed to really help reignite interest in fintech listings after a period of dormancy.

Klarna’s debut reflected renewed investor appetite for “buy now, pay later” models after private-market resets.

Figure’s performance thus far has been one of the most impressive among the fintech debuts in 2025.

Whether we’ll see as many fintech IPOs in 2026 as we did in 2025 remains to be seen. However, one thing is certain - there are a number of hotly anticipated ones that industry observers are expecting could (or should!) happen. In talking to VCs about what to expect this year, these four names popped up more than once: Plaid, Ramp, Monzo, and Revolut. 

Plaid, a San Francisco-based fintech company that connects bank accounts to financial applications, last April confirmed to TechCrunch that it would not go public in 2025, but that an IPO was a milestone the company continued “to track towards.”

In November, London-based Revolut completed a secondary share sale that increased its valuation to $75 billion. Impressively, it achieved $1 billion in annualized revenue and surpassed a 65 million customer base across 100 countries in 2025. However, the company likely won’t IPO until it secures its full U.K. banking license, for which it is still awaiting approval.

Monzo, another U.K.-based banking platform, is also believed to be eyeing an IPO in 2026. However, there has been some drama as of late. CEO TS Anil was recently pushed out of the head role due to his reported attempts at a listing earlier than some directors apparently wanted. Still, it impressively notched $1.6 billion in revenue for its fiscal year ended March 31 amid “a sharp rise” in annual profit.

For its part, Ramp has been on a tear, raising four funding rounds in 2025 alone. The New York-based expense management company in November brought in a $300 million haul at a $32 billion valuation. It’s not clear whether Ramp will go public in 2026, considering roughly half of the $300 million in equity it last raised will be used toward covering employee liquidity – a move often made by companies not yet ready to take the IPO plunge.

Investors that we spoke to had mixed feelings about the state of fintech IPOs.

Jake Gibson, founding partner at Better Tomorrow Ventures, said 2025 was supposed to be the year the IPO market finally opened back up after the downturn – not just for fintech, but for tech as a whole. 

“It did to some extent, but still way less than everyone expected,” he said. “Macro uncertainty, combined with the abundance of late-stage capital ‘flight to quality’ has been partially responsible.”

Having said that, he acknowledges that there were several fintech IPOs, largely because of the backlog leftover after the 2022 downturn. 

“We expect IPO and M&A activity to continue the trend line from last year,” he told This Week in Fintech. “I wouldn't be surprised if it's a lot more M&A than IPOs, though.”

Ralph Osnoss, managing director at General Atlantic, acknowledges that overall, the 2025 IPO class had mixed trading results out of the gates. He believes this occurred against a market backdrop of shifting interest rates, an AI boom, and geopolitical uncertainty. 

“Zooming out, we believe the majority include fundamentally sound businesses that combine innovation and growth with proven profitability, which is a distinction against prior hot markets,” he told This Week in Fintech. “This class has paved the way for potentially more IPOs in 2026.”

Amias Gerety, partner and head of U.S. investments at QED Investors, said his firm remains bullish about the IPO market for 2026 and believes that there are several “very strong” fintech companies in a financial position to go public in 2026 or 2027.

“The big names to watch here are Kraken, Plaid, Revolut, and Monzo for 2026,” he said. 

He’s also still bullish on the companies that went public last year.

“The fundamental financial performance of 2025's IPOs has remained strong,” he said. “These companies are finding their floors more quickly and are better positioned to ride out volatility than the 2021 IPOs if they execute well.”

In general, Gerety believes that the management teams going public today are more sophisticated and better prepared for market volatility than those who went public in 2021, having already witnessed the whipsaw from 2021 into the 2022-2024 period. This preparation has allowed them to find their footing more quickly and keep their teams executing at a high level through the inevitable roller coaster, understanding that being public subjects them to market whims.

Norwest VP Jordan Leites believes that 2025 was a banner year for fintech IPOs, driven largely by a backlog of well-known companies that had been waiting for the IPO window to reopen. 

Moving forward, he thinks that there’s less of an obvious backlog of household fintech names ready to test the public markets, so he expects IPO activity to moderate. 

All VCs agreed that M&A activity in 2026 will likely be robust.