UK fintech Zepz pushed back IPO plans amid accounting issues
UK fintech firm Zepz was forced to delay its initial public offering plans after being hit by accounting difficulties and churn in its senior team, according to reports today.
Zepz, the parent company of money transfer firm WorldRemit, was reportedly angling for an IPO in the US in the second quarter of this year at a valuation of up to $6bn (£5.04bn) but the firm struggled to carry out checks on some customer accounts in a timely manner, Bloomberg reported today.
Sources close to the plans said that the issued had caused a delay to the IPO preparation plans but have since been resolved.
A Zepz spokeswoman said that it had a “robust team of individuals who monitor activity globally to ensure that every translation on the group’s platforms is carried out ethically and accurately in conjunction with our correspondents.”
She added that allegations of “accounting issues were speculative and factually inaccurate”.
Zepz has also been among the fintech firms to have pushed through swathes of job cuts in recent months amidst a global tech downturn, with bosses slashing the firm’s global headcount to around 1,000.
Former chief executive Breon Corcoran laid out plans in February to cut the workforce and freeze pay for most employees, before then leaving the company in June. The company has also been hit by senior churn, with three executives holding the title of CEO within the last year and three differnet executives acting as chief marketing officer within a one-year period, Bloomberg reported.
A spokesperson added: “Zepz leadership internally shared a strategy to reduce our cost base and seek a stronger degree of financial independence, to ensure that we can service our millions of customers around the world sustainably and independent of further external funding,” she said, adding that the firm had not announced timelines for an IPO.
Zepz, founded in 2010 as WorldRemit by Somalian-born businessman Ismail Ahmed, currently provides international payments services in over 130 countries, supporting 70 currencies.