PalmPay, the African digital payments group backed by Taiwanese chipmaker MediaTek, is preparing for a potential initial public offering in Hong Kong that would value the company at more than $1bn, according to people with knowledge of the matter.
The Nigeria-focused fintech is in discussions to raise about $200m in an ongoing funding round that would give it unicorn status, according to reports. The company is working with advisers on a possible listing, though the size, timing and valuation of any share sale remain under discussion and could change depending on market conditions and regulatory approvals. PalmPay declined to comment on the fundraising and IPO plans.
A Hong Kong listing would represent a significant milestone for a company that has grown from a Nigerian mobile payments startup into a digital financial services platform operating across Africa and parts of Asia. The move follows PalmPay’s decision earlier this year to sign an agreement with Hong Kong’s Office for Attracting Strategic Enterprises (OASES), establishing the city as the base for its global operations. The company has said Hong Kong would serve as a hub for building cross-border financial infrastructure linking African and Asian markets.
Asian backing, African footprint
Founded in 2019, PalmPay launched in Nigeria after raising $40m in seed funding from investors led by Transsion Holdings, the Chinese parent company of Tecno, Infinix and Itel phones. , Transsion Holdings has, itself, also renewed its Hong Kong initial public offering application in June 2026 after its initial filing lapsed. The smartphone maker is aiming for a dual-platform listing to complement its existing share on the Shanghai Stock Exchange. Other PalmPay early backers included NetEase and MediaTek. The company raised a further $100m in 2021 and has secured about $140m since its launch.
The strategic alignment with Transsion, which dominates Africa’s smartphone market, has been central to PalmPay’s growth. The PalmPay app is pre-installed on millions of Transsion devices sold across the continent, giving the fintech a distribution advantage over rivals. The company now reports more than 35m registered users, primarily in Nigeria, and about 1m business clients. Its services include transfers, bill payments, savings, cards, credit and insurance offered through partners.
PalmPay became profitable in 2025. Revenue doubled from $64m in 2023 to more than $128m in 2024, according to industry reports. The company operates consumer businesses in Nigeria, Tanzania and Bangladesh, with business payment services in Ghana and South Africa.
Hong Kong’s resurgent IPO market
The choice of Hong Kong as a potential listing destination reflects PalmPay’s ownership and business links to Asia. Transsion, NetEase and MediaTek are all based in Asia, while the company serves users in Africa and South Asia. A Hong Kong listing would give PalmPay access to a deep pool of Asian institutional investors already familiar with the mobile payments business model from companies such as Ant Group and WeChat Pay.
Hong Kong’s IPO market has staged a sharp recovery in 2026. As of July 31, 101 companies had listed on the exchange, raising a cumulative HK$326bn ($41.6bn) — up more than 153 per cent year-on-year. Technology companies have accounted for more than half of listings. The city has recorded 24 A+H dual listings and 13 specialist technology IPOs in the first half of the year, both surpassing full-year 2025 totals. Goldman Sachs has projected full-year IPO fundraising could reach $60bn.
The revival has been driven partly by regulatory innovations including the Technology Enterprises Channel (Chapter 18C), which enables pre-revenue and pre-profit companies to list based on innovation potential rather than traditional financial metrics. Large technology listings — including from Chinese AI, semiconductor and hardware companies — have attracted robust demand from global investors.
Competition and risks
PalmPay competes directly with OPay, another Chinese-backed Nigerian fintech, in the agent banking and consumer payments space. OPay, backed by SoftBank, has been exploring a US IPO targeting a $4bn valuation. The two companies’ consideration of different listing destinations — Hong Kong for PalmPay, New York for OPay — suggests Africa’s two largest Chinese-backed fintechs may be taking divergent routes to public markets.
For Nigeria’s fintech ecosystem, PalmPay reaching unicorn status and moving towards a public listing is a significant signal. It confirms that the country’s mobile payments market, which has been intensely competitive and capital-intensive, is producing companies of sufficient scale for global capital markets.
However, PalmPay still faces risks from regulation, fraud, currency fluctuations and intensifying competition in Nigeria, its main market. Its use of Transsion phones for distribution helped it gain customers, but public investors will scrutinise whether those users generate sustainable profit and remain active. The company’s financial metrics — revenue, profit, customer activity, costs and risks in each market — would be subject to public disclosure in any IPO.
PalmPay has received international recognition for its growth. In 2026, it was named among TIME magazine’s 100 Most Influential Companies and one of the publication’s top finance industry leaders, alongside global firms such as Nubank, Ant Group and Mastercard. It also ranked second on the Financial Times’ Africa’s Fastest-Growing Companies 2025 list, with revenue growth of 583.6 per cent between 2020 and 2023.
If completed, PalmPay’s IPO could become one of the most closely watched listings involving an Africa-focused fintech, signalling growing global investor interest in financial technology companies serving high-growth emerging markets. The $200m funding round is the immediate next step. An IPO will depend on the fundraising terms, market conditions and whether PalmPay is ready for public reporting