Photo illustration: Axios Visuals. Photo: PicPay
After spending several years proving it could scale and turn a profit, Brazilian fintech PicPay went public on Thursday. CEO Eduardo Chedid spoke with Axios on IPO day about timing, competition and how the company plans to deploy its new capital.
Why it matters: If PicPay trades well, it could give other Latin American fintechs a path to the U.S. public markets.
(This interview has been edited for brevity and clarity.)
Q: Why go public now, and why list in the U.S.?
- Listing in the U.S. made all the sense for us, as we are a digital bank and most of our peers are either already listed here in the U.S. or are planning to. It also gives us access to a larger base of investors globally.
- We've been trying to do this for the past three years, and now it seemed that the window was perfect, and we took it.
Q: You previously attempted to go public a few years ago. What was different this time around?
- More than anything, it allowed us more time to actually prove that we could execute on the plan.
Q: Who do you see as your competition in Brazil, the incumbent banks or other digital players?
- Seventy percent of the total market profit pool remains concentrated in incumbent banks, so this is our priority in terms of competition.
- In Brazil, on average, a person has five bank accounts, so we end up overlapping with everyone.
Q: You have been moving deeper into the merchant and small-business space. How is that going?
- We focused the last five years primarily on building the consumer banking business. About 12 months ago, we extended the same product velocity to the small and medium businesses side.
- We're beginning to see some really good signs that it's ramping up, and we do believe that we can make a difference there.
Q: Where do you see growth coming from next?
- If you look at our revenue mix, 50% in the third quarter of 2025 was driven by credit products, and the remaining 50% from fees, commissions and services. We do not expect that to change a lot.
- Further penetration of the user base with credit products is a key aspect, and we will still have lots of other services that are more asset-light.
- Only 33% of our revenues are driven by unsecured credit products, which means that it's quite a defensive revenue mix.
Q: Do you have international plans, or are you only focused on Brazil for the foreseeable future?
- It would be natural for us to branch into other Latin American countries. But the opportunity in Brazil is too large to miss, and you should expect us to be purely concentrating on Brazil for the next two to three years.
Q: How will you use the IPO proceeds?
- It's basically to foster additional growth. It is also to meet capital requirements from the Central Bank as we keep growing the credit portfolio.
- We announced the acquisition of an insurance company in our prospectus, and part of that will be used to close that deal.
