GIC-backed Nium pushes back IPO plans to refocus on growth
The payments company is valued at US$1.4 billion and aims to go public by end-2026
SINGAPORE payments company Nium is pushing back its plans for an initial public offering (IPO) in the US by more than a year, focusing on shoring up its team and growing revenue.
Nium, now valued at US$1.4 billion, will be ready to go public by the end of 2026, co-founder and chief executive officer Prajit Nanu said.
It had previously targeted the second quarter of 2025. Nanu attributed the delay to a long search for a finance chief, saying a new leadership now in place will allow it to focus on IPO preparation.
Like larger US peer Stripe, Nium helps companies handle cross-border payments.
Nium’s largest shareholder is Singapore investment company Temasek, which has a stake of more than 20 per cent. Its other backers include Singapore sovereign wealth fund GIC.
Nium increased its revenue by about 50 per cent last year to US$120 million and is now focusing on expanding in regions including the UK and Latin America, said Nanu.
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The firm announced on Monday (Sep 9) that it hired Andre Mancl as chief financial officer, tapping the former CFO of online food booking platform ChowNow to lead functions including corporate development, planning and investor relations.
The former Credit Suisse Internet investment banker has advised and executed transactions for companies including Lyft, Meta Platforms and GoDaddy, the company said.
“We started looking for a CFO a year back. It’s just been a really painful process,” Nanu said.
Nium’s valuation, a 30 per cent discount to its previous market value, came on the back of a US$50 million fundraising round in June that was led by Brunei’s sovereign wealth fund, Nanu said. The funds will be used for acquisitions in the real-time payments space, he said.
The company, which expanded rapidly by buying London-based Ixaris, Singapore’s SoCash as well as Wirecard Forex India over the past few years, expects to increase net revenue to US$200 million next year, Nanu said.
“We raised at US$2 billion when the public market was crazy,” Nanu said. “Now the public markets are not crazy anymore.”
Nium, whose backers also include California-based Riverwood Capital, is looking to snap up one to two payments startups worth about US$40 million to US$50 million by the end of the year and has about US$100 million in cash to fund the purchases, Nanu said.
Nanu co-founded Nium, which means “rules” in Sanskrit, as a cross-border remittance service in 2014. After growing up in Mumbai, he got a taste of what it’s like to build businesses during his dozen years at upstart companies including Adventity and WNS Global Services.
He came up with the idea after trying to send money from India to Thailand to organise a bachelor’s party for a friend in 2013. He ran into a problem as a Thai resort refused to take his credit card and insisted on a bank transfer, while his bank in India requested an extensive list of documents for transferring US$640.
Today, Nium has about 950 employees across more than 25 offices worldwide. Its software helps businesses accept online payments, and allows them to send money and issue physical and virtual credit cards. BLOOMBERG
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