FinTech IPO Index Surges 3.8% as Lemonade, Affirm Lead the Pack

The FinTech IPO Index was 3.8% higher this past week, as Lemonade and Affirm were at the forefront of gainers, up a respective 58.5% and 23.6%.

A broad-based rally in the overall markets Thursday — as tech stocks got a boost from Nvidia’s earnings – helped with momentum.

As for Lemonade, the stock’s jump extended a rally that’s stretched out over the past two weeks, when the insurance firm posted third-quarter earnings. The company’s in-force premiums were up 24% year on year to $889 million, and revenues were up 19%, according to company materials. Customer count increased by 17% to 2.3 million. Premiums per customer was $384 at the end of the third quarter, up 6% year on year.  At the company’s investor day this week, the firm noted that its gross profit increased by 3x over two years.

Affirm Broadens Priceline Partnership

Affirm expanded its partnership with online travel firm Priceline. The new collaboration makes Affirm the buy now, pay later (BNPL) provider for Priceline Partner Solutions, the company’s B2B business.

As we reported, Priceline partner brands — spanning industries including hotels, airlines and car rental services — can begin offering travelers the ability to schedule trips and pay over time via their own websites. Priceline Partner Solutions partner brands can integrate Affirm into their checkout flow by working with their account team. From there, customers will see Affirm as a payment option for orders of at least $50.

Futu Holdings’ third-quarter announcement noted that the total number of paying clients increased 33.1% year-over-year to 2.2 million. The total number of registered clients increased 22.8% year over year to 4.3 million. Client assets increased 48.1% year-over-year to HK$693.4 billion. Shares slipped 4.5% through the past five sessions.

OneConnect said in its results for the third quarter that revenue from continuing operations was RMB417 million, a decrease of 48.3% year on year, as contributions from its cloud services platform slipped. Implementation revenue was RMB167 million in the third quarter of 2024, a decrease of 4.7% from last year. Shares in the company were off 2.9%.

Upstart’s shares were up 6%.

This week, the company said that DR Bank, an FDIC-insured member bank, is using Upstart’s small-dollar loan product to support customers with short-term financial needs. According to the announcement, the small relief loans are available in amounts between $250-$2,500, for periods of time between three to 18 months.

dLocal’s latest earnings report showed that total payments volume of $6.5 billion in the third quarter was up 41% year over year. Revenues came to $185.8 million, up 13% year over year. Results were driven by strong performance in Argentina and Egypt, the company said. dLocal shares gathered 5.3%.

Nuvei said last week that it completed its previously announced go-private transaction. As a result of the completion of the arrangement, its shares are slated to be delisted from the Nasdaq Global Select Market next week. Under the arrangement, Nuvei became a wholly owned subsidiary of the purchaser, of which Advent, Nuvei CEO Philip Fayer, Novacap and Caisse de dépôt et placement du Québec hold or control a respective 46%, 24%, 18% and 12%.

Nu Holdings’ shares were among the most notable decliners, off 11%.

The company said last week it added 5.2 million customers in the third quarter, reaching a total of 109.7 million customers, a 23% year-on-year boost. On an FX-neutral basis, average revenues per active customer were up 25%. Overall revenues were higher by 56% year-over-year on FX neutral basis, to $2.9 billion. In Brazil, the end customer base was 98.8 million in September, adding an average monthly gain of 1.1 million customers.