Private markets heating up
Fintech IPOs are getting pushed as markets demand clearer paths to profitability — firms are delaying listings, per PYMNTS reporting. Meanwhile private-market moves show big value creation: Revolut hit record profits, Anduril raised at a reported $60B valuation, and OpenAI is selling secondary shares through banks and ETF packaging — blurring public and private markets (x.com) (x.com) (x.com) (x.com).
PYMNTS names PhonePe, Kraken and Clear Street as high-profile fintechs that have recently slowed or paused IPO plans. (pymnts.com) Revolut reported a pretax profit of £1.7 billion ($2.3 billion) in 2025, up 57% year-over-year, with group revenue rising to about $6 billion. (cnbc.com) The firm says it reached a $75 billion private valuation in 2025 and has secured a full U.K. banking licence while filing for a U.S. bank charter as it pushes global expansion. (cnbc.com) Anduril is in talks to raise roughly $4 billion in a round that would value the defense‑tech firm at about $60 billion, with Thrive Capital and Andreessen Horowitz reported as lead backers. (axios.com) The round would follow last year’s Series G, which closed at about a $30 billion valuation after $2.5 billion in capital. (techcrunch.com) OpenAI completed a roughly $6.6 billion secondary share sale that pushed a reported valuation to about $500 billion, after authorizing up to $10.3 billion in potential transactions. (techcrunch.com) CNBC and Bloomberg reporting says the investors involved included SoftBank, Thrive and Dragoneer among others, and that the sale gave current and former employees major liquidity. (cnbc.com) Bloomberg reports OpenAI raised about $3 billion from new investors in a placement distributed to clients by three major banks, and Ark Investment said three of its ETFs — ARKK, ARKF and ARKW — would each hold roughly a 3% stake to give retail exposure to the company. (bloomberg.com)
