Fintech unicorns are watching Klarnas debut for signs of when IPO window will reopen
Summary
LISBON, Portugal — Financial technology unicorns arent in a rush to go public after buy now, pay later firm Klarna filed for a U.S. IPO — but theyre keeping a watchful eye on it for signs of when the market will open up again. Last week, Klarna made a confidential filing to go public in the U.S., ending months of speculation over where the Swedish digital payments firm would list. "The markets have been challenging over the last few years," Takeuchi, whose business GoCardless was last valued at over $2 billion, said in a CNBC-moderated panel at the Web Summit tech conference in Lisbon, Portugal. In a separate interview, Liu directed CNBC to what her fellow Airwallex co-founder and CEO Jack Zhang has said previously — that the firm expects to be "IPO-ready" by 2026. "We outlined five handles to open the [IPO] window, and I think those stars are aligning in terms of the macro, interest rates, politics, the elections are out the way, volatility," Navina Rajan, senior research analyst at private market data firm PitchBook, told CNBC.