The company has filed confidentially for an initial public offering in the U.S., Bloomberg News reported Monday (June 23), though the number of shares in question and price range remain undetermined.
The report noted that Wealthfront’s planned IPO follows its rival Chime, which went public earlier this month, raising $684 million and indicating a thaw for FinTech listings. Two other FinTechs, Klarna and Plaid, are also preparing for IPOs.
According to Bloomberg, Wealthfront is known for its automated investing tools and an online platform popular with younger customers, along with banking services such as savings accounts. UBS tried to purchase the company to bolster its high-net-worth customer base, but called off the deal in 2022.
Writing about the Chime IPO earlier this month, PYMNTS looked at the broader landscape for FinTech IPOs in the last few years, noting that many “have come to market and had a rough go of it,” with PYMNTS’ Weekly FinTech IPO Index featuring numerous “busted IPOs” that trade below their offering price.
As of March, private equity and venture capital funding to FinTechs, which can be seen as a shorthand for the lineup of future IPO candidates, came to a multiyear low. S&P Global Market Intelligence said in March that the sector had taken in $21.5 billion in venture capital last year, the lowest funding level since 2016.
“But now, as 2025 is nearly half over, Wall Street’s enthusiasm for FinTechs has been positive,” that report added. “Circle, as has been widely reported, notched triple-digit percentage point gains in its first day of trading. Chime’s … push helps underscore that enthusiasm.”
Investors rushing into the FinTech space, PYMNTS wrote, are likely feeling more confident followed by the regulatory rollbacks from entities such as the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, which has dropped rules that would have regulated some FinTechs like banks.
That report also noted that Chime, like Wealthfront, tends to attract younger customers. Research by PYMNTS Intelligence data has shown that younger consumers “are ready, willing, and with their phones, able to shift their banking allegiances to digital-only providers,” with 54% of Generation Z consumers relying primarily on nontraditional financial service providers.
