French SME-business banking unicorn Qonto is gearing up for a new chapter of investor liquidity, signalling that it’s ready to ride the wave of secondary share sales rather than chase an imminent public listing. Sifted
Scaling on profit, liquidity in focus
Co-founder and CEO Alexandre Prot confirmed at Sifted Summit that Qonto plans “secondary rounds” to provide exit routes for early investors and staff. Sifted The Paris-based firm, already profitable for two consecutive years, clocked €448.7 m in revenue in 2024 and €144 m in net profit. Sifted With headquarters in France and operations spanning Germany, Italy, Spain, Netherlands, Belgium, Portugal and Austria, Qonto has all the hallmarks of a pan-European fintech champion. Sifted
Prot didn’t wave the IPO flag. “Whether we do that as a public or a private company, we don’t care too much,” he said. Sifted Instead, Qonto is doubling down on growth — and using liquidity for insiders as the tool of choice in the current market climate.
Why secondary sales make sense now
In the current global market freeze on listings, secondaries offer a pragmatic liquidity lever. Prot referenced Stripe as a precedent: a major tech player that has remained private while offering recurring liquidity events to employees and investors. Sifted Others are following suit — for example, Revolut in the UK launched a secondary sale at a ~$75 billion valuation in September. Sifted
For Qonto, which raised over €600 m to date (including a €486 m Series D in 2022 at a €4.4 billion valuation) Sifted, the calculus is clear: growth is on track, profitability secured, and raising new capital is not urgent — so liquidity becomes the headline for insiders.
The strategic bull-case
From the Bullish Times vantage, Qonto’s move checks several boxes:
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Resilience: Profitable at scale, with revenues north of €400 m and net profits clinched — rare in the fintech world.
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Pan-European footprint: The firm is no longer just “French fintech” — it’s a cross-border SME banker with multi-market expansion.
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Optionality-rich: By staying private but enabling liquidity via secondaries, Qonto retains flexibility, de-risks the IPO path and keeps control.
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Talent & investor alignment: Secondary sales align employee and investor incentives — offering upside, retaining talent, and satisfying early-backer liquidity needs.
What to watch
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Size & timing of the secondary rounds: How large will the liquidity tranches be, and what valuation will they imply?
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Path to IPO: While Qonto claims little urgency, the market will still track if an IPO gets prioritised when conditions improve.
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Competitive intensity: With challengers across Europe, scaling cost-effectively and defending margins remains critical.
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Macro & regulatory head-winds: European fintechs face evolving regulation, interest-rate pressure and a tougher fundraising climate — Qonto’s decision to focus on secondaries may be a smart hedge.
Qonto is playing its cards right. With profitability in the bag and an embedded Europe-scale operating base, the move to enable secondary share rounds flags maturity. It signals that the business is no longer in hyper-burn mode but shifting into growth plus margin mode. For employees and investors, the message is clear: you won’t have to wait for a public listing to harvest value. For the broader fintech ecosystem, it demonstrates that staying private isn’t a compromise — it can be a strategic advantage. Stay bullish.
