Rakuten Considers US IPO for Credit Card Business

Rakuten is reportedly considering an American initial public offering (IPO) for its credit card business.

The Japanese eCommerce/finance conglomerate began weighing the IPO last month, Reuters reported Wednesday (Oct. 15), citing two sources familiar with the matter.

One of these sources says the company’s decision was sparked by rival SoftBank’s plan to list its payments app PayPay in the U.S. The news follows a report from earlier this week that investors are projecting PayPay’s valuation could top $20 billion with its IPO.

The Reuters report describes Rakuten as shaking up the Japanese finance space by simplifying the credit card application process, and by making credit cards more accessible to a broader range of consumers.

Credit cards, the report points out, are a key piece of Rakuten’s business, which encompasses online shopping, banking, travel and other services, with customers earning loyalty reward points by making payments.

Rakuten in August announced it was embedding its agentic artificial intelligence (AI) platform across its ecosystem, in hopes of transforming its own operations while also offering merchants advanced new capabilities.

“When I started Rakuten, I believed the internet had the power to change the world, and I committed to building something that could make a real difference,” Chairman and CEO Mickey Mikitani said at the Rakuten AI Optimism 2025 conference. Today, that AI is bringing transformational shifts. “Society is undergoing major changes, and we want to leverage AI not just to adapt, but to grow together.”

In other credit card news, PYMNTS wrote Wednesday about the way mobile wallets are transforming credit card use, finding that consumers “aren’t abandoning cards. They’re abandoning the swipe.”

The latest PYMNTS Intelligence “How the World Does Digital” report examines how mobile-first experiences have turned into the new default for everyday transactions. Research from that report shows that mobile wallets now power 35% of online and 21% of in-store purchases, representing respective gains of 5.2 and 10.9 percentage points in the last three years.

“Rather than signaling a pivot to new funding sources, the change reflects a repositioning of payment access around convenience, security and speed,” PYMNTS wrote.

“At the heart of this evolution is a simple proposition. People trust their cards but prefer to tap, scan or authenticate through phones instead of plastic.”