PayPay, Japan’s leading mobile payment app, has reportedly postponed its IPO in the United States due to market instability and the recent conflict in the Middle East.
The company was scheduled to announce its IPO price range on Monday, March 2nd. PayPay was aiming for a valuation of at least 1.5 trillion yen ($10 billion), Bloomberg reported.
PayPay was established in 2018 as a joint venture between SoftBank and Yahoo Japan with technical cooperation from India’s Paytm. In late 2024, Paytm sold its remaining stake to SoftBank for approximately $279 million.
2026 began with high hopes for high-tech IPOs, but a slide in software stocks has caused several companies to pull back or postpone their listing plans amid concerns that AI will eventually make traditional software obsolete. The US attack on Iran and related turmoil in other countries in the region has further spooked the market.
In January, The Information reported that Kleiner Perkins-backed Motive Technologies, which develops dashboard cameras for long-haul trucks, had postponed its IPO. Additionally, tech brokerage ClearStreet withdrew its IPO plans last month.
Although the small-list market is currently stagnant, retail investors are still hopeful of three potential “mega IPOs” in 2026: SpaceX, OpenAI, and Anthropic.
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