Zopa is setting its sights on a 2022 IPO

Over the past 16 years, Zopa has gone from peer-to-peer lender to digital bank, dishing out £6bn worth of loans and attracting £400m of customer deposits along the way.

Zopa is one of the oldest fintechs, first coming to life as a peer-to-peer lender all the way back in 2005, and 15 years later finally secured its full banking licence.

And now, exactly a year after it was awarded its full banking licence, Zopa is taking the time to reflect on its first year as a bank and what is around the corner. 

The challenger bank says it’s on track to reach profitability by the end of the year, largely thanks to its popular lending products that have helped many get through the Covid-19 pandemic.

In total, the fintech has dished out more than £6bn in loans to the UK market, with Zopa giving its customers a decision in minutes.

Zopa has also issued over 100,000 credit cards in the last nine months alone and attracted more than £400m in customer deposits since becoming a bank.

“The past year has been a highly successful one for Zopa Bank and we’ve exceeded our targets across new and existing products. We built a bank to better meet the needs of UK consumers and our year one success endorses that approach,” Jaidev Janardana, CEO of Zopa, said.

"We look forward to using the momentum that we have gained to expand our products and services further and to help more customers. At Zopa, we are also passionate about building a sustainable business and so I’m excited to see that our trajectory puts us on course to be amongst the fastest digital banks to achieve profitability.”

Janardana added that he plans to take Zopa public as early as the last quarter of 2022, a bold move to announce intentions to IPO more than 12 months down the line.

Since gaining its full banking licence, Zopa has rolled out a series of new products.

The fintech now offers auto loans, credit cards, savings accounts and recently teamed up with ClearScore to bring open banking to the credit industry.