Brazilian digital bank PicPay files for U.S. IPO

• What’s at stake: Market share, cross-border competition and credit growth hinge on the IPO’s reception and valuation.
• Expert quote: Troy Hooper, Mergermarket: PicPay IPO signals U.S. market confidence but faces regulatory, macro risks.
• Supporting data: PicPay reported $1.37 billion in revenue (first nine months 2025), up 97% year over year.
  Source: Bullets generated by AI with editorial review

The Brazilian digital bank PicPay has, again, filed for a U.S. IPO.

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PicPay, a São Paulo-based mobile banking and payments fintech that offers digital wallets, merchant acquiring services and loan products, publicized its filing with the SEC on Monday night for Nasdaq’s most restrictive listing tier, Global Select Market, under the ticker symbol PICS.

The announcement follows previous reports in late 2025 that the company was looking to make a second attempt at a U.S. listing. Founded in 2012 as a digital payments company, PicPay initially filed for an IPO in April 2021 aiming for an $8 billion valuation, but withdrew that filing in June 2022.

IPO research firm Renaissance Capital estimates that PicPay could raise up to $500 million in a public offering.

Troy Hooper, Mergermarket’s co-head of equity capital markets for the Americas, told American Banker that the Brazilian fintech’s renewed IPO bid reflects growing confidence in U.S. equity capital markets. 

A listing, according to Hooper, “could elevate PicPay’s international profile, attract a broader base of tech-focused investors, and fund strategic growth initiatives such as credit expansion, new services or acquisitions to strengthen its competitive edge.”

PicPay reported in its prospectus filing that Bicycle Management Company LLC has expressed intent to purchase $75 million worth of Class A shares as an “anchor investor” for the company.

In the public filing, the digital bank reported revenue and financial income of $1.37 billion in U.S. dollars for the first nine months of 2025, a 97% increase year over year, and a net profit of $59 million. For 2021, the year PicPay first filed for a U.S. IPO before withdrawing its application the next year, the company reported $220 million in revenue and a net loss of about $357 million. 

PicPay is one of multiple Brazil-based fintechs to make moves into the U.S. market in recent months. Nubank, a neobank also based in Brazil, filed for a U.S. banking charter in September of last year. Nubank went public on Nasdaq in December 2021, and achieved a $41 billion valuation at the time.

One difference between the two digital banking providers is in their home country licensing. PicPay received a banking license from the Brazilian Central Bank in 2022 and officially operates as a banking institution, while Nubank does not yet have a banking license from Brazil and currently operates as a non-bank fintech. Nubank announced in December that it intends to acquire a Brazil banking license in 2026.

Another difference is the number of total customers each company has. PicPay reported 66 million total customer accounts in Brazil in its prospectus as of September 30, 2025, a 12% increase year over year. Nubank reported 127 million customers globally in its third quarter 2025 earnings report. Of those, 110 million are from Brazil, 13 million are from Mexico and 4 million are from Colombia.

Hooper believes that PicPay faces a crowded fintech market and will be challenged by both fierce competition and currency volatility.

“Investors seeking exposure to emerging-market fintech must also weigh regulatory uncertainty, interest-rate dynamics and macroeconomic risks,” he said, “all factors that could temper appetite for higher-risk IPOs.”