Jaidev Janardana, CEO of Zopa, has blamed the media for the UK fintech sector’s focus on valuations.
During the fireside chat with Akila Quinio, reporter at the Financial Times, said: “The easiest way to get a story in the media is to say ‘I raised this much money at this much valuation’. Very little actual diligence is done on what is the preference sits under it.”
He went on to say that stories about banks making people's lives better or reaching customer milestones don’t get written about.
He added: “The next thing that is written about is the IPO. That's the next big obsession. I've been talking to journalists today for the last couple of hours. What I've been saying is that I'm not in a hurry to IPO but yet, I'm sure in the headlines that will appear tomorrow.”
Janardana is referring to the story, covered widely on Monday, that Zopa reached profitability and is eyeing an IPO and will start to offer an current account.
Regarding this milestone, Janardana said: “It was a validation of the fact that the business model that we had created, customers are willing to pay for and we can actually create a business that can pay for itself, but it also allows us to actually be more ambitious.”