PicPay Plans IPO Amid Brazil’s Digital Payments Revolution

Brazilian digital bank PicPay is reportedly planning to go public in the U.S. next year.

The company is set to hire financial firms to help it with an initial primary offering in New York, Reuters reported Wednesday (Oct. 2), citing two sources familiar with the matter.

The report notes that PicPay planned to go public on the Nasdaq in 2021, but abandoned that idea because of unfavorable market conditions.

One of the sources said that PicPay has yet to settle on the size of the share sale, but wants its initial public offering (IPO) to be “only as big as necessary,” while also cautioning that the timing and value may depend on market conditions.

According to the report, the company views 2025 as a promising year to go public. The Federal Reserve has commenced its rate cuts, and the U.S. presidential election will soon be over.

The IPO is designed to not only raise funds, the sources said, but also increase PicPay’s visibility on the global stage, draw new tech investors and help generate money to help the company expand in Brazil.

That country, PYMNTS has written, has emerged as a world leader in digital innovation, a phenomenon highlighted by the widespread embrace of Pix, an instant-payment app launched by Brazil’s central bank in 2023.

In addition, the payment/eCommerce “Amazon of Latin America” platform Mercado Libre launched in Brazil in 1999 and is still in wide use.

“This adoption is a testament to Brazil’s strong digital infrastructure, with two-thirds of consumers owning smartphones and 92% having access to at least a 4G network,” PYMNTS wrote, citing data from the “How the World Does Digital” report.

More recently, we noted that Brazilian consumers are turning to digital wallets to make payments, with nearly half of them using this technology to pay bills.

“Surprisingly, it is the country’s baby boomers and seniors who are the most active digital wallet users when paying bills — and for online shopping,” that report said. “In fact, 31% of baby boomers in Brazil paid for an online purchase using one of these wallets. In contrast, just 20% of Generation Z and 25% of millennial consumers in Brazil did the same.”

This usage goes beyond financial transactions, with 34% of consumers in Brazil saying they expect to verify their identity via digital wallet in the next three years.

“This suggests that the Brazil market is ready to use these wallets to hold IDs and other documents,” PYMNTS wrote.