Zopa delays IPO

Zopa has reportedly delayed its plans for a stock market flotation because of market conditions.

The consumer lender exited the peer-to-peer lending sector in January to focus on its digital bank and its plan for an initial public offering (IPO) by the end of 2022.

But CNBC reported that the deteriorating macroeconomic climate is impacting fintech fundraisings and valuations.

“The markets have to be there” for Zopa to go public, chief executive Jaidev Jardana told CNBC at the Money 20/20 conference in Amsterdam. “The markets are not there — not for fin, not for tech.”

“We will just have to wait for when the markets are in the right place,” he added. “You only want to do an IPO once, so we want to make sure that we pick the right moment.”

Read more: Zopa gets set for IPO and buy-now-pay-later products

The Ukraine crisis has added to inflationary pressures, leading to weaker conditions in public and private markets.

John Collison, co-founder and president of payments behemoth Stripe, said at Money 20/20 that he was unsure if the company could justify its $95bn (£76.4bn) valuation in the current climate, according to CNBC.

In October last year, Zopa Bank confirmed a $300m (£220m) fundraise as part of its plans to go public.

The round was led by Softbank and included backing from existing investors IAG Silverstripe, Davidson Kempner Capital Management, NorthZone and Augmentum Fintech.

If Zopa goes public, it would follow in the footsteps of former P2P lender Funding Circle and alternative property lender LendInvest which listed in 2018 and 2021 respectively. LendInvest delayed its IPO in 2019 in favour of a private cash injection.

Several P2P platforms have talked about potential stock market flotations.

Assetz Capital told Peer2Peer Finance News earlier this year that it plans to launch an IPO within the next three years.

Shojin Property Partners and Kuflink have also mulled going public.