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Zilch asks banks to pitch for an IPO sources say may price below $2 billion
Zilch has invited banks to pitch for a float as early as 2027, against a $2 billion private valuation of about 14 times revenue. The listing would test what public buyers will pay for a 2021 fintech price attached to a lender still reporting losses.
The Investor · Invest desk
What happened
- Zilch set the $2 billion valuation in a 2021 round, in what Crowdfund Insider called a more exuberant period for fintech, and held it in later raises including one in 2025.
- Its loss narrowed to £10.5 million in the year to March 2025 from £50 million a year earlier, while revenue almost doubled to £110.3 million.
- London is the preferred venue, though New York and other European exchanges have not been ruled out.
- In January Zilch announced plans to buy Lithuania's Fjord Bank as part of an international expansion that brought it a European banking licence.
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Why it matters
- exposure Goldman Sachs, Deutsche Bank, eBay Ventures and DMG's venture arm back a company valued privately at $2 billion; a float below that would put a public number under their marks.
- constraint Management wants a profit by the time of any listing, so the 2027 date depends on the next set of accounts as much as on market conditions.
- decision Belamant has tied London's appeal to pension-fund money for growth companies and retail-investor incentives, so the venue he picks will show whether he thinks those reforms arrived.
- precedent A Zilch float would give the UK digital lenders and neobanks the exchange has courted alongside it a public reference price for their own listings.
PYMNTS converted Zilch's loss figures at roughly $1.32 to the pound [7][1]. At that rate, the £110.3 million of revenue for the year to March 2025 is about $146 million [6][2]. The $2 billion private mark is about 13.7 times that figure [3]. Each turn of the multiple is worth about $146 million of valuation [8].
Two people close to the discussion told the Financial Times the IPO is unlikely to reach $2 billion [5]. I think they are right about the multiple. The case against them is growth. The loss shrank by £39.5 million in one year and now equals about 9.5% of revenue [4][5]. If revenue doubles again before a 2027 float, to about £221 million, a multiple of roughly 6.9 times, half of today's, would still produce $2 billion [7].
Zilch takes in about £18 a year for each of its roughly six million customers [6][9], and part of that comes from targeted advertising built on transaction data [9]. Interest is the charge pay-later products were designed to avoid. Yet PYMNTS Intelligence found that 82% of BNPL customers who use four or more providers would pay it to get a longer repayment schedule, against 46% of those who use one [14]. PYMNTS wrote that the gap "suggests that BNPL's most active customers could provide a natural market for longer-duration credit" [15]. The survey covers BNPL users in general, not Zilch's customers.
The other outcomes are a later date or a different exchange. People familiar with the process say talks are at an early stage and the timetable could change [2]. A London float would be a boost for the exchange after years of falling listings and a run of takeovers that cut the number of quoted UK companies [16]. A Zilch spokesperson said the firm is focused on executing its growth strategy after a strong 12 months and that "all strategic options remain open" [12].
A price range at or above $2 billion would prove that view wrong. It would show that public buyers accept the 2021 figure as a value, and that it was more than a price private rounds carried forward [4]. Neither report includes a target valuation or the size of the raise.
What to watch
- Zilch's accounts for the year to March 2026, the first evidence of whether the £10.5 million loss has become the profit management wants before listing.
- The banks appointed and the exchange named in any intention-to-float notice, with New York the alternative to London.
- Whether interest-bearing, longer-duration credit appears in Zilch's products after the Fjord Bank purchase.