eToro, Klarna and Circle have reportedly all suspended work on their initial public offerings, leaving corporate backers waiting longer for exits.
Corporate-backed online trading platform eToro reportedly postponed its IPO roadshow on Friday, leading a range of companies that are pausing plans to go public in the wake of market turmoil caused by the US imposition of widespread tariffs.
The Trump administration raised tariffs on Wednesday to a rate that includes a 10% baseline tariff to goods coming into the US, and share prices have plummeted accordingly, wiping $1.8 trillion off the valuation of seven of the largest tech stocks alone.
The tariffs came less than two weeks after eToro, which counts SoftBank, Ion Group, Ping An, Sberbank and Commerzbank as investors, filed to float on Nasdaq, reportedly eyeing a $5bn valuation. The roadshow process involves speaking to prospective investors to drum up interest in the run up to an offering.
Buy now, pay later services provider Klarna and stablecoin infrastructure developer Circle, which have roughly a dozen corporate investors between them, have reportedly also put their plans on hold, as have medical technology producer Medline, physical therapy app developer Hinge Health and online ticketing platform StubHub.
The market collapse has come at a time when tech investors were optimistic about the IPO window reopening so they could see returns from some of their larger investments.
GPU infrastructure provider CoreWeave floated last month and its success – its shares popped some 40% on its first day of trading – caused companies including eToro and Klarna to pull the trigger on their offerings.
CoreWeave’s shares remain about 10% up from their IPO price, but the turbulence in stock markets raise questions about the viability of planned flotations by other tech companies. Chime, Gemini and Airtable were among the corporate-backed startups picked by GCV to potentially file in 2025.
