WorldRemit Parent Zepz Reportedly Shelves IPO Plans to Focus on Profits

Global money transfer startup Zepz, the parent company of WorldRemit, is reportedly putting its planned initial public offering (IPO) on hold while it focuses on profitability amid management turnover and alleged account issues. 

Headquartered in London, Zepz was founded in 2010 as WorldRemit by Ismail Ahmed. The company recently has seen several senior management exits while some customer accounts weren’t checked in a timely manner, Bloomberg reported on Wednesday citing unnamed sources. 

See also: WorldRemit Hits $5B Valuation, Rebrands As Zepz

Former employees have said the company has had four CEOs and three marketing chiefs just in the past year, and the CTO and CFO left in December 2021, Bloomberg reported. The account management problems have been solved, the sources said.

Allegations regarding the company’s accounting issues were “speculative and factually incorrect,” a Zepz spokesperson told Bloomberg.

The spokesperson said Zepz has a “robust team of individuals who monitor activity globally to ensure that every transaction on the group’s platforms is carried out ethically and accurately in conjunction with our correspondents.” 

Read more: London FinTech Startup Zepz Mulls $6B NY Listing, Bypassing UK

Zepz was hoping to go public in the U.S. this year at a valuation that was estimated at a high of $6 billion (5 billion pounds), PYMNTS reported in February, citing Bloomberg’s sources at the time. 

The company’s valuation was $5 billion in August 2021 following a $300 million funding round from backers that included Farallon Capital, Leapfrog, TCV and Accel.

The money transfer startup is now focusing its efforts on reaching profitability, especially in light of the current state of investor confidence in tech startups, the sources told Bloomberg.

“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,” said the spokesperson, adding that the company hadn’t announced a timeline for a public offering.