Funding & Business
When Meme Investing Goes Macro

Funding & Business
Blockchain Lender Figure Debuts on Nasdaq

Mike Cagney, co-founder and executive chairman of blockchain lender Figure, joins “Bloomberg Tech” to discuss the company’s debut on the Nasdaq and what comes next for the blockchain-based fintech firm.
(Source: Bloomberg)
Source link
Funding & Business
Finland to Weigh Courier Posti IPO as Soon as This Year

Finland is considering an initial public offering of Posti Group Oyj on the Helsinki stock exchange as soon as this year, according to people familiar with the matter, kicking off a long-touted privatization of the country’s postal service.
Source link
Funding & Business
Shares of Blockchain Lender Figure Surge In Early First-Day Trading

Shares of blockchain lender Figure opened at $36, about 44% higher in first-day trading, on Thursday in the company’s initial public offering, marking another public debut from a fintech this week.
The San Francisco-based company, which has built a blockchain-based platform for lending, trading and investing in consumer credit and digital assets, had set a price range for its IPO of $18 to $20 per share. But as of late Wednesday, the company had increased the price of its shares to $25.
Figure trades on the Nasdaq under the ticker symbol FIGR.
The top end of that new price range gave the company an initial valuation of over $5 billion, and means that Figure raised about $787.5 million from the initial public offering.
At the time of its $200 million Series D raise in 2021, Figure was valued at $3.2 billion.
Since its 2018 inception, the company has raised $1.5 billion venture and debt funding, per Crunchbase data. Figure was “GAAP profitable” in the fourth quarter of 2024, according to , CEO Michael Tannenbaum, and “EBITDA in the most recent quarter was in the 40s margin.”
“So I think we definitely have that rare combination of growth and margin,” he told Crunchbase News in an interview.
The executive is clearly bullish on his 550-person company’s future.
“We’ve actually been building in the blockchain space since the beginning,” Tannenbaum told Crunchbase News. “We weren’t the first to put consumer loans on blockchain. We were the second. But we were the first to securitize them and to get them rated, and then to get that AAA rating.”
He also acknowledges that there has been a significant increase in interest in tokenization, and claims that Figure is “the market leader in tokenization of private credit.”
“On the debt side, we do the most tokenization of anyone, with about 75% market share,” Tannenbaum added.
The open IPO market
Figure’s IPO follows a string of well-received venture-backed debuts, including the blockbuster market entry by design software provider Figma, which saw shares triple in first-day trading (although they have come back down to earth since).
Fellow fintech Klarna made its public debut on Wednesday. The Swedish company’s stock climbed by about 16% in first-day trading.
Both IPOs also come amid renewed interest in investment in fintech startups, with multiple rounds above $100 million closing this year.
Overall, the IPO dam in fintech finally seems to have broken in 2025.
Since the beginning of the year, several companies in the fintech space have either gone public or filed to do so.
- In early June, shares of Circle closed up 168% at $83.29 in their first day of trading on the New York Stock Exchange, minting the stablecoin issuer with a market cap of around $16.7 billion and renewing hopes for an IPO market rebound. More recently, shares have traded in the $118 range.
- Digital bank Chime went public on June 12, and came out swinging. Chime’s shares shot up 37% in first-day trading on Nasdaq, closing at $37. Shares have traded around $23 in recent days.
Meanwhile, digital wealth management startup Wealthfront filed confidentially for a U.S. initial public offering on June 23. In early June, crypto exchange Gemini confidentially filed its own plans for a U.S. IPO. Its stock was also set to start trading this week. And also in June, expense management firm Navan (formerly TripActions) also filed confidentially for a U.S. IPO.
Related Crunchbase query:
Related reading:
Illustration: Dom Guzman
Stay up to date with recent funding rounds, acquisitions, and more with the
Crunchbase Daily.
-
Business2 weeks ago
The Guardian view on Trump and the Fed: independence is no substitute for accountability | Editorial
-
Tools & Platforms1 month ago
Building Trust in Military AI Starts with Opening the Black Box – War on the Rocks
-
Ethics & Policy2 months ago
SDAIA Supports Saudi Arabia’s Leadership in Shaping Global AI Ethics, Policy, and Research – وكالة الأنباء السعودية
-
Events & Conferences4 months ago
Journey to 1000 models: Scaling Instagram’s recommendation system
-
Jobs & Careers2 months ago
Mumbai-based Perplexity Alternative Has 60k+ Users Without Funding
-
Podcasts & Talks2 months ago
Happy 4th of July! 🎆 Made with Veo 3 in Gemini
-
Education2 months ago
VEX Robotics launches AI-powered classroom robotics system
-
Education2 months ago
Macron says UK and France have duty to tackle illegal migration ‘with humanity, solidarity and firmness’ – UK politics live | Politics
-
Funding & Business2 months ago
Kayak and Expedia race to build AI travel agents that turn social posts into itineraries
-
Podcasts & Talks2 months ago
OpenAI 🤝 @teamganassi