Chinese online brokerage Up Fintech files for a US IPO, seeking to raise up to $150M, and says it had $33.6M in revenue and a net loss of $44.3M in 2018
Anna Vodopyanova / CapitalWatch :
Context & Ripple Effects
Up Fintech is the second Chinese online brokerage to reach for a US listing this year, trailing Futu Securities' January filing by under two months — a head-to-head race between the two Tiger-era brokers for the same American retail-investor audience. The timing matters because Futu closed up 28% on its first day after raising just $90M, proving there is an open window for this exact profile.
Up Fintech's numbers are weaker than its rival's: $33.6M in 2018 revenue against a $44.3M net loss, versus Futu's $92M in revenue through September 2018. The corpus also shows the downside case — 360 Finance closed flat on its debut after raising only $51M — so the market has already priced both outcomes for Chinese fintech listings.
First-order effects
- Up Fintech gains access to dollar-denominated growth capital of up to $150M while still loss-making, letting it fund customer acquisition against Futu without waiting for profitability.
Second-order effects
- Futu now faces a directly listed competitor tapping the same investor base; its 28% first-day pop becomes the benchmark Up Fintech must beat or discount against, pressuring valuation and pricing on both books.
Third-order effects
- If the pattern holds, US public markets become the default funding venue for China's online brokers even as consumer-lending peers like X Financial and 9F show thinner receptions — concentrating Chinese fintech listings around brokerage models with clearer paths to scale.
The trend: Chinese consumer fintech is routing around thin domestic funding options via US IPOs, with online brokerages drawing stronger debuts than P2P lenders.