Editor’s note: African-Startups is a sister publication of EU-Startups, bringing trusted coverage of startups, venture capital, and innovation across Africa.
OPay, the SoftBank-backed Nigerian digital payments company, has abruptly withdrawn its planned $304 million initial public offering (IPO) on the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE).
The withdrawal, on 30 October 2026, cited a regulatory inquiry from an unidentified foreign jurisdiction as the reason. The sudden withdrawal came on the very day the company confirmed pricing for its shares.
According to Reuters, OPay decided to pull the plug on its planned IPO after disclosing a regulatory inquiry by a foreign jurisdiction it declined to identify. The company further described the jurisdiction as “immaterial” to its core operations and did not reveal the nature of the inquiry or the regulator involved.
In a statement, the company said it expects the matter to be resolved satisfactorily and added that the matter “should not be misconstrued as a reflection on the Company’s business performance, financial condition, operational integrity, or regulatory standing.”
The withdrawal of OPay’s planned US IPO is striking not only because it was part of the African tech IPO wave but also because of the way it happened. Earlier that day, OPay priced 16 million American depository shares at $19 each, the bottom of its targeted $19 to $21 range. At $19 per share, the company had a valuation of about $4 billion.
The company had planned to list under the ticker symbol “OPay” and it had Citigroup, Deutsche Bank, Standard Bank, and CICC among its underwriters. Ahead of the IPO, Standard Bank Group had signed an agreement to invest up to $200 million in OPay, bringing Africa’s largest bank by assets into the franchise.
Founded in 2018 by Chinese billionaire Yahui Zhou, who also founded Beijing Kunlun Tech, the gaming company that previously owned dating app Grindr, OPay is a Nigeria-focused FinTech that provides digital financial services across emerging markets, including Indonesia. Its app offers payments, money transfers, savings, and loans, targeting economies where limited access to traditional banking makes everyday financial transactions difficult.
In its IPO prospectus, the company said it had approximately 50 million monthly active users as of 31 July 2026. The company had previously raised $400 million in 2021 at a $2 billion valuation, and Japanese tech investor SoftBank Group holds a 6.6% stake in the company.
The IPO withdrawal by OPay comes amidst a pattern of delayed listings globally due to stubborn inflation and a selloff in AI-related stocks. Smart ring maker Oura delayed its IPO in late September citing market uncertainty while OpenAI has also delayed its highly anticipated public listing.
For OPay, the immediate focus will be to resolve the undisclosed regulatory matter before any renewed plans to go down the path of a public listing. Even though it has withdrawn its public offering, the IPO path remains open given the company’s scale, profitable trajectory, and the growing appetite for African tech IPOs among international investors.
