SoftBank-backed Japanese payment app PayPay showed strong demand ahead of its Nasdaq listing on Thursday, with preliminary indications suggesting an opening price of $22, which is 37.5% higher than its initial public offering price of $16, corresponding to a valuation of approximately $14.71 billion.
In this offering, PayPay and an investment fund controlled by SoftBank sold approximately 55 million American depositary shares, raising about $880 million. The offering price was below the market promotional range of $17 to $20, indicating the company adopted a more conservative pricing strategy amid market volatility to boost trading momentum post-listing.
Founded in 2018 and jointly driven by SoftBank and Yahoo Japan, PayPay quickly expanded its share in the Japanese cashless payment market by initially waiving merchant fees and offering user rebates. The company disclosed that by the end of 2025, it had approximately 72 million registered users.
This marks the first time a SoftBank-majority-owned company has been listed on the U.S. capital markets since Arm in 2023. Recently, PayPay also reached a strategic partnership with Visa, seeking to advance its global and U.S. market expansion.
