Building brand narrative: the secret to successful fintech IPOs

The “fintech winter” of 2023/4, when investment dried up and the valuations of fintech businesses fell through the floor, is now long in the past. Today, the sector is in a markedly different place. 

New research from BCG shows that global fintech revenues grew 22% in 2025, more than four times as fast as incumbent revenues, to surpass half a trillion dollars. 

However, this is not a return to the froth and hype of 2021. As BCG points out, today’s fintech sector is maturing, demonstrating greater profitability, more selective funding, and strong operating performance. 

Meanwhile, IPOs are on the rise, growing 50% in 2025 and including massive names such as Chime, Klarna, and Circle. Speculation is now rife about the potential IPOs of other fintech success stories including Monzo, Starling, and Plaid.

From a comms perspective, if you’re a fintech on the route to an IPO, now’s the time to build a strong narrative that will appeal to potential public investors. Here are five key things to factor in:

1. Communicate around compliance. The days when fintechs could operate outside of traditional banking regulations are over. As BCG highlights, the regulatory gap between fintechs and legacy banks has all but evaporated. While moving closer to bank status grants fintechs more autonomy and market power, it also comes with significant governance, capital, and supervisory obligations. For an IPO-bound company, compliance should be seen as a brand asset. To win over risk-averse public market investors, you must communicate early and often about how you meet these obligations. 
2. Shout about AI and infrastructure. While compliance demonstrates that your business can be trusted by investors, it’s your technology capabilities that show it can grow. Right now, public market investors are backing B2B operational infrastructure, core tooling, and AI-native models. If your firm possesses strengths in AI or infrastructure, this should lead your brand narrative. You need to explicitly share, for example, how your infrastructure powers the broader ecosystem, or how your proprietary AI will become an engine for growth. 
3. Focus on AEO. Even the most brilliant brand narrative is useless if it’s invisible. With AI summaries changing how people discover content online, pre-IPO fintechs must get to grips with Answer Engine Optimization (AEO). This means maintaining traditional SEO practices while aggressively embedding machine-readable authority into content. LLMs and AI search engines favor brands they deem trustworthy. To ensure your narrative is captured in AI summaries, you must back every claim with structured data, robust proprietary proof points, and reputable third-party citations.
4. Shift from disruption to dependability. The first great fintech boom was fueled by the excitement of disruption. Today, as the sector matures and integrates more deeply with traditional banking, the narrative must change. Positioning your brand as an outsider trying to break the financial system now signals risk. Instead, position your firm as a foundational pillar of a new financial system: mature and established.
5. Double down on educational content. Complexity is a barrier to successful IPOs. If your fintech operates in highly specialized areas, such as tokenized securities or deep infrastructure, there’s a possibility that if public market analysts cannot easily explain what you do, they will misprice your stock. To mitigate this, prioritize high-level educational content. Look to demystify your technology and frame your complex solution in simple terms. 

The fintech market is the most exciting it’s been for years, and there’s real opportunities for businesses looking to go public. Those that focus on brand narrative will find they get the best price for their stock and will be fighting off investors the day they float.