SoftBank’s digital payments arm, PayPay Corporation, is preparing for a major Wall Street entrance — and it will arrive with heavyweight backing from the Middle East.
Two of the region’s most influential sovereign wealth funds, Abu Dhabi Investment Authority and Qatar Investment Authority, have stepped forward as cornerstone investors in the company’s planned Nasdaq listing. The funds, alongside global payments giant Visa, have collectively pledged up to $220 million toward the share sale.
The listing could raise around $1.1 billion, positioning it as the largest Nasdaq debut by a Japanese company to date.
PayPay, a fast-growing digital payments platform backed by SoftBank Group, is targeting a valuation of roughly $13.5 billion. The company intends to offer nearly 55 million American Depositary Shares (ADS) in the public offering.
Of those, just over 31 million shares will be issued directly by PayPay, while roughly 24 million shares will come from an existing shareholder — SVF II Piranha (DE) LLC, an investment vehicle ultimately controlled by SoftBank.
Pricing for the ADS is expected to fall between $17 and $20 per share.
The IPO roadshow briefly stumbled earlier in the week amid market jitters tied to escalating tensions involving Iran, but the offering is now moving forward with plans to begin trading on Nasdaq on March 11.
Several major investment banks are steering the deal, including Goldman Sachs, JPMorgan, Mizuho Securities, and Morgan Stanley.
If successful, the float would mark another milestone in PayPay’s evolution from a domestic payments platform into a global fintech contender — with deep-pocketed sovereign investors helping clear the runway for its public market debut.
