SoftBank-backed PayPay (PAYP Proposed) of Japan may become the next big IPO. PayPay, the dominant QR code mobile app in Japan, filed to go public last week. (No terms yet.) This could be the biggest Japanese IPO ever done in the U.S., according to Bloomberg. Some think that PayPay’s IPO could raise as much as $2 billion.
But that expectation may get a reality check after what’s happened this month. Two big IPOs – Clear Street Group (CLRS Proposed) and Liftoff Mobile (LFTO Proposed) – postponed their deals at the 11th hour in the first half of February. Both deals were pulled late in the afternoon on a Thursday: Clear Street postponed its IPO last week on Feb. 12, 2026, after slashing the deal’s size by 65 percent, on a day when the Dow lost more than 600 points. Liftoff Mobile shelved its IPO a week earlier – on Feb. 5, 2026 – as the software sector drove the market sell-off on AI fears. Private equity firm BlackRock was in for $200 million of Clear Street’s IPO. Rival Blackstone was a cornerstone investor in Liftoff Mobile’s IPO.
Have Visa, Will Travel
PayPay unveiled its plans to work with Visa, the credit card giant, in the prospectus.
PayPay has agreed upon the basic terms of a business alliance with Visa “to explore collaboration in Japan and the United States by leveraging our QR codebased payment platform and Visa’s global payment network and digital payment technologies,” the prospectus said.
“Details of the potential collaboration have not yet been decided,” the prospectus said.
Goldman Sachs, J.P.Morgan, Mizuho, Morgan Stanley and Citigroup are the leading joint book-runners for PayPay Corp.’s IPO.
Jefferies, BofA Securities, Societe Generale, the Wolfe Nomura Alliance and Cantor are joint book-runners. The underwriting team includes Credit Agricole CIB, Daiwa, Deutsche Bank Securities, Natixis, SMBC Nikko, Barclays, ING, IMI-Intesa Sanpaolo, MUFG and Santander,
The PayPay Story
As for PayPay, let’s turn back time for a moment.
PayPay was founded in Japan on June 15, 2018, under the name Pay Corp. as a joint venture between SoftBank Corp. and Yahoo Japan Corp. to develop and offer electronic payment services. In July 2018, the company changed its name to PayPay Corp.
PayPay is a super app play on Japan and its transformation from a cash to a digital economy.
Since its launch in the fall of 2018, PayPay has become one of the most widely used digital wallets in Japan.
“Our story started with our code-based cashless payments solution,” PayPay said in the prospectus. “We launched this service in October 2018 and it rapidly expanded to become a nation-wide leading cashless payments ecosystem that had approximately 72 million PayPay registered users as of December 31, 2025, representing a penetration of 75% (75 percent) among 96 million smartphone users in Japan1.
“With the acquisition of PayPay Card Corporation in October 2022, our platform evolved to a next-generation payments ecosystem, seamlessly integrating our code-based payment and credit card payment services through our PayPay app.”
In the prospectus, the company said that “PayPay allows users to make fast, secure payments by simply scanning a code with their smartphone, while offering merchants a low-cost, easy-to-adopt digital payment solution.”
Fast forward to April 2025: That’s when PayPay acquired majority voting rights in PayPay Bank Corp. and PayPay Securities Corp. As a result, PayPay gained “comprehensive capabilities to provide a broad range of financial services offerings, to become a convenient one-stop financial portal destination for all users,” the company said in the prospectus.
“Our offerings include internet banking and lending services through PayPay Bank Corporation and smartphone-based securities brokerage and investment services through PayPay Securities Corporation along with additional value-added services for our users.”
As of Dec. 31, 2025, PayPay Bank had 9.7 million accounts with a total of ¥2,281.9 billion in deposits and ¥1,098.3 billion in loan balances, including card loans, business loans and mortgages, the prospectus said.
PayPay Securities Corporation, with its standalone app in addition to also being embedded in the PayPay app, reached 1.54 million brokerage accounts as of Dec. 31, 2025, and serves a broad base of primarily first-time investors through user-friendly features, the prospectus said.
PayPay Corp. (PAYP) intends to use the IPO’s net proceeds for general corporate purposes, including working capital and possibly to acquire or invest in businesses, services or technology, the company said.
A Piranha & Profits
Fun fact: The selling shareholder in the PayPay IPO is SVF II Piranha (DE) LLC. SVF stands for SoftBank Vision Fund. (We won’t know how many shares that PayPay and its selling shareholder SVF II Piranha (DE) LLC intend to offer until PayPay files its F-1/A document.)
PayPay makes money. For the 12 months that ended on Dec. 31, 2025, PayPay reported net income of $720.32 million on revenue of $2.33 billion, according to financial statements in the prospectus.
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