Fintech CEO says employees are too obsessed with being paid in stock
As fintech funding dries up and opportunities to cash out stock payments grow fewer and further between, joining a publicly traded fintech, or one on the verge of an IPO, is an even more attractive prospect than ever. But one London fintech CEO says employees’ are wrong to prioritise stock pay.
Speaking at the Innovate Finance Global Summit yesterday, Zopa CEO Jaidev Janardana said that all the talk about fundraising and IPOs is often just self-serving PR.
Click here to sign up for our fintech newsletter 🤖
“The easiest way to get a story in the media is to say ‘I raised this much money'” Janardana said. Private valuations look flashy, but “are ultimately what one investor thinks about a company.” He notes that today, with funding rounds fewer and further between, IPOs are “the next big obsession.”
The FT says Zopa is ready to float and that it wants to do so in the UK. However, Janardana said he’d be “surprised” if there were fintech IPOs in the UK this year.
Instead of joining companies that are preparing to IPO, Janardana implied that potential fintech employees might want to focus on profitability. Zopa’s annual report showed a swing to £15.8m in the black this week, which Janardana pinned on “strong unit economics,” an attitude echoed by fellow profitable fintech OakNorth.
Employees might also want to focus on straight salary and bonus compensation. Zopa’s recently released annual report revealed that it hired almost 100 employees last year, and paid staff average ‘salaries and wages’ of £74k. This is slightly down from £81.8k the year before, which is likely due to the fact that the majority of additions were administrative staff.
Interestingly, despite all the buzz of a public launch, Zopa’s employees may not stand to benefit too much. Despite the hiring, stock-based compensation fell overall (and wasn’t particularly high to begin with). In 2022 employees were paid £2.2k in stock on average, but last year that number dropped to £1.4k
Employees don’t seem to mind too much, however; Glassdoor reviews at Zopa average 3.95 stars in 2024 (though this is down from its all-time average of 4.4 stars). Recent reviews praise the culture and quality of people, but some criticise the working hours and note a lack of structure.
Have a confidential story, tip, or comment you’d like to share? Contact: +44 7537 182250 (SMS, Whatsapp or voicemail). Telegram: @SarahButcher. Click here to fill in our anonymous form, or email editortips@efinancialcareers.com. Signal also available.
Bear with us if you leave a comment at the bottom of this article: all our comments are moderated by human beings. Sometimes these humans might be asleep, or away from their desks, so it may take a while for your comment to appear. Eventually it will – unless it’s offensive or libelous (in which case it won’t.)
Photo by Sarah Agnew on Unsplash
