Fintech has been a booming industry for years, but 2025 brought a surprising twist.
Circle, Chime and Klarna are three of the biggest fintech firms in the world. They raised $3.2 billion by returning to public markets.
It wasn’t about the money. The real surprise was not the money, but what the market wanted in return. Not hype, growth at all costs rhetoric, and something much more grounded.
Investors wanted unit economics to work. Investors wanted clarity in the regulatory environment. They were looking for companies who could endure a financial test.
The IPO boom of June-September was not a repetition of the frothy IPOs that dominated 2021; rather, it was a resetting where investors finally felt confident about fintech’s maturity.
The market is waiting for discipline
The fintech IPO markets have been essentially stagnant for three years.
Reality has caught up quickly with the hype of the years 2020 and 2021 when tech startups were rushing to become public due to pandemic demand.
Investors had moved on by 2022 or 2023. Investors no longer wanted to finance companies that were burning up fast and had vague plans for profitability.
Revenue bar was raised. Multiples have been compressed. Fintech was one of the most difficult sectors to fund, despite all its potential.
The companies that listed in 2025, not the fintech industry itself, changed.
The startups that will be thriving at any cost in 2020 are not these. Circle, Chime and Klarna are mature companies with hundreds of millions of dollars in revenues, thousands of employees and, most importantly, a proven path to profitability.
Chime has reached 8,6 million members active and achieved profitability in the first quarter following its public listing.
Klarna has grown to include 111 millions active users and reduced its burn rate drastically.
Circle had, by March 2025, built USDC to be the second largest stablecoin in the world, with a cumulative volume of on-chain transactions totaling $25 trillion.
Kate Leaman Chief market analyst at AvaTrade said it rightly:
Fintech 2025 IPO is not a frantic rush to the gold but a test for who can deliver real economics.
By the middle of 2025, there was a noticeable thaw in the market. The market thawed by mid-2025, as interest rates continued to rise.
Cost discipline has become a virtue. Profitability was now achievable. Investors were more willing to look at the market when they saw three big names all lined up in one season to become public.
Circle pop 168% in June
Circle’s IPO price on June 4, was $31, well above the initial $24-$26 range.
Investors were nervous about regulatory uncertainties, and the stablecoin company’s attempt to go public in 2022 failed.
The environment had changed. Circle, which has spent years watching the global development of stablecoin regulations, had regulatory certainty on its side.
On the IPO, this company valued itself around $6.9 Billion dollars.
First day trading followed. Circle stock rose from $69 to $103.75 on the first trading day.
Circle’s valuation had nearly tripled by the end of day. This was the most spectacular fintech listing for years.
It felt as if 2021 had returned for a moment. Investors chased momentum. IPO allocations are scarce. Early partying was underway.
Circe’s reaction was not about fintech hype returning; rather, it was about the arrival of regulatory clarity.
Circle’s USDC Stablecoin has already processed transactions worth trillions of US dollars.
Circle had established relationships of trust with financial institutions ranging from Visa to JP Morgan. Circle was no longer a speculative play, as stablecoin regulations are becoming more clear in the US. It was about infrastructure.
Chime: the profitable Neobank
Chime, which debuted a mere week before Circle, priced its IPO on 11th June at $27, well above the initial price range of $24-$26.
Neobank, which raised $864 millions and values itself at $11.6 Billion, has a valuation of $9.6 billion.
This number was a shock to longtime Chime employees and investors. Chime was valued at $25 billion just four years ago, in 2021. It was now going public for less than half of that.
Chime’s profitability made it possible to offer a discount. Just weeks before the public offering, Chime posted a net profit of $12.9 millions in Q1 2025.
Chime had its first ever profitable quarter, which was a huge milestone in the history of the company. In 2021 the company spent a lot of money on customer acquisition.
The company’s revenue had also increased. It grew from $1.28 Billion in 2023, to $1.67 Billion in 2024. This is a 31% increase year-over-year.
Chime was able to expand without losing any money.
Simple but effective, the neobank story is a powerful one.
Chime has built up a franchise of 8.6 millions active users who use the platform to manage their checking and savings accounts as well as a lending business.
Its main source of income was interchange fees for debit card transactions, but it also had a growing platform business, which included ATM fees and advances on paychecks, as well as loans.
It was no longer the Silicon Valley ethos of “move quickly and break everything”. It was a company in the financial sector that knew how to operate like a real business.
Chime’s IPO proved that fintech firms that can demonstrate discipline would be paid a fair price by the market.
It didn’t have to. The stock didn’t jump 168% on day one, but it wasn’t necessary.
Klarna September Moment: the largest Fintech IPO in 2025
Circle’s IPO was a success in terms of regulatory compliance, while Chime’s was a story about profitability. Klarna’s debut on September 1st represented something entirely different: it validated an entire product class.
In 2025 the global market for Buy Now, Pay Later, which was barely present in the US 10 years ago, will be worth $560 billion, with a growth rate of 13.7% per year.
Klarna’s IPO, which took place on 9 September, was priced at 40 dollars per share and raised $1.37 billion. This is the biggest fintech IPO in 2025.
On the IPO, Sweden’s company was valued at $15 billion. This number also marked a significant drop for Klarna.
In 2021, the company’s valuation peaked at $45.6 billion.
After years of intense competition and regulatory restrictions on consumer loans, as well as the need to prove real economics in unit pricing, they were now charging a fraction of their peak price.
Klarna was strong from the start. The shares opened at 52 dollars, up 30 percent from the IPO, and ended up 15 cents, valuing it at 19.65 billion.
By the end of this year, it is expected that over 40 billion dollars will be processed by the company.
Klarna, with its 111 millions active users and growing merchant partners, has grown to become one of the biggest payment networks in the World.
Investors saw value even in a company that had a massive amount of scale, and improved unit economics.
Klarna listed at a strategic time. The fintech company had delayed their IPO plans earlier in the year due to tariff uncertainty and volatility on the market under Trump’s administration.
Klarna pushed forward in September after the market had stabilized and risk appetite returned.
It was the result of the first in a series of fintech IPOs that were expected to be launched by the end, proving the readiness of the market to accept scaled-down fintech firms back on public markets.
Investors’ priorities have changed
These three IPOs show how the investor’s preferences have changed in just four years.
In 2021, fintech companies pitched growth. They pitched profit in 2025. Fintechs could raise billions in 2021 with millions of users and a convincing vision.
Investors demanded that by 2025 those millions of users translate into sustainable revenues and positive unit economies.
This shift is supported by the data. Boston Consulting Group’s research shows that by 2025 69% of fintech public companies will be profitable.
The margins of public fintech EBITDA have risen to 16 %, from just 12% two years ago.
Fintech revenues grew by 21% between 2024 and 2025, which is three times more than what the banking industry had achieved. But now, this growth comes with profitability.
The ICD interviewed Mohanad Yakout Senior Market Analyst, Scope Markets. Yakout opined on the fact that fintech IPOs are not just a reflection of a simple recovery in sentiment.
Investors’ appetite for risk has definitely rebounded. This is especially true of firms that have a clear path to profitability as well as strong unit economics.
Mohanad Yakout said that companies like Circle, Chime and Klarna have shown how fintechs are able to combine sustainable growth with margins. This makes the public market more confident about their valuations.
Investors rated Circle, Chime and Klarna based on this. Circle’s growing USDC adoption and regulatory clarity made it appear less as a crypto speculative play, and more of an essential infrastructure.
The neobank’s model was mature enough for real returns, based on the increasing profitability of Chime and its margins.
Klarna’s size and its merchant partners positioned the company as a category leader for BNPL. This market was large enough now to sustain a publicly traded company.
A regulatory windfall that nobody anticipated
Fintechs had been unable to get regulatory clarity for a long time, which was one of the factors that enabled them to come back in 2025.
Startups in the crypto-lending and digital banking industries have been operating in an uncertain fog for years.
This fog started to clear in 2025. The GENIUS Act gave stablecoin issues clear federal standards, including reserve requirements.
Stablecoins that comply with the act are not classified as securities. This resolution had been threatening to fall on this entire industry for many years.
The clarity of the message didn’t only help Circle. This clarity signaled investors that the fintech sector was moving from an exploratory frontier into a regulated one with actual guardrails.
Regulation of stablecoins was just one example. From the UK FCA proposals, to Brazil’s Digital Asset legislation, regulators around the globe were shifting from prohibition, to integration.
Fintech investors and entrepreneurs saw a major shift. Finally, you could plan for an era where stablecoins and neobanks would operate under clear regulations, rather than arbitrage.
This clarity has been invaluable for companies such as Circle, Chime and Klarna that operate in different jurisdictions, with differing degrees of regulatory certainty.
Kate Leaman’s AvaTrade assessment captures the larger shift.
Circle has a strong regulatory presence and resiliant fee revenue. It is an important USDC. Chime had attractive margins, a plausible path to profitability and Klarna only returned to the market after they reset their valuation. They also prioritized sustainable growth above GMV.
Investors could tell them that they were not trying to race ahead of the regulations or avoid regulators. The goal was to build transparent businesses with a high level of compliance.
What it means: It’s a selective capital flow, not an influx
It was not a reset for 2021. It showed exactly the opposite.
Three major companies have gone public, raising a total of $3.2 billion.
Investors didn’t rush to IPO fintech firms at any valuation. Investors were selective. The companies they chose were those with a proven track record, clear pathways to profitability and regulatory certainty.
Circle, Chime and Klarna were not part of the new wave, but rather outliers.
The fintech IPO marketplace will probably remain selective in 2026, and possibly beyond.
There may be opportunities for other fintech firms with similar size, such as Stripe, Revolut or others.
The days of 100x multiples and loose capital are over. Fintech is becoming more sophisticated, disciplined and boring.
Investors want to invest in companies that are profitable, and not those that burn money spectacularly.
Yakout notes that:
In key markets there has been a reduction in the uncertainty which had previously slowed down IPO plans. Fintech is the main driver of IPOs. Investors no longer chase hype but back firms that have demonstrated financial discipline and long term viability.
Fintech investors that bet higher on companies in later stages of development face a challenge with the 2025 comeback.
Circle’s IPO price ($6.9billion) is a significant discount to what Circle was valued at by investors in the private market ($8billion+). Klarna has an even greater gap. This shows how the fintech private market placed a much higher value on Circle than the public markets would accept.
It will take some time for these gaps to be closed.
Real story of capital returns: but there are conditions
After a 3-year dry spell, the headline for 2025’s fintech tale is straightforward: capital returned after a drought of three years.
Circle, Chime and Klarna raised $3,2 billion, opening doors that were locked for many years. The subtext is more important.
Fintech firms were forced to accept terms for the return of capital. Profitability is important. Clarity in regulations is important. Real unit economics matter. Hype doesn’t.
As Leaman concludes:
Investors are looking for franchises that have been scaled down, regulated and near profitable. This is not an open-door policy for all. More IPOs are expected from leaders who have a disciplined approach, but the capital is likely to remain selective and not indiscriminate.
This is good news for investors. The companies that will survive and flourish won’t necessarily be those with the most compelling stories or highest burn rates.
The ones that will learn how to create sustainable businesses. The party is over for entrepreneurs but now the hard work begins.
For everyday customers it could mean that the fintech industry is actually working, and that companies are prioritizing user value over short-term growth.
Fintech hasn’t gone back to the old days because Circle, Chime and Klarna have raised $3.2 billion in 2025.
Fintech was finally a sector that was worth investing again. Not as a bet on speculation, but as an actual financial service.
It’s worth noticing.
As new information becomes available, the post “Looking back to 2025: The $3.2 billion Fintech IPO Comeback Nobody predicted” may be updated.
