Months after launching its first U.S. credit card, Rakuten is now considering an initial public offering for its credit card business.
Best known for its online shopping platform, Rakuten operates one of the largest credit card programs in Japan, with more than 30 million cards issued. It entered the U.S. market with the Rakuten American Express Card, which runs on the Amex network but is not issued by American Express. Instead, the official issuer is First Electronic Bank, and Rakuten made the surprising choice of partnering with fintech startup Imprint to power the card program.
“This is a really exciting move into the U.S. market, where they’ve already established a foothold,” said Brian Riley, Director of Credit at Javelin Strategy & Research. “This is not a fintech doing an IPO because they need money to grow. I see the IPO as more of an opportunity to broaden their presence than to fund their war chest.”
Aggressive Growth Strategy
The potential expansion also appears to be targeting the business-to-business (B2B) market, as part of an aggressive strategy adopted by Koichi Nakamura, who became CEO of Rakuten Card earlier this year.
In a blog post, Nakamura noted that Rakuten aims to reach 30% domestic market share in Japan—up from nearly 25% at the end of 2024—and achieve ¥100 billion in annual operating profit, nearly double the company’s performance last year. However, he emphasized that achieving such ambitious growth would require tackling the B2B space.
Nakamura highlighted that the B2B market is generating more than ¥1,100 trillion yen annually, of which less than ¥10 trillion is currently conducted via credit card.
“The consumer card spends maybe $12,000 at the max a year,” said Riley. “The typical average B2B small business card is more like $40,000. And there are lots of ways to kick off relationships, if you look at how the B2B card is used with office supplies, technology, and expenses like that.”
A History of Spinoffs
Rakuten has a history of spinning off subsidiaries across various stock markets. Its unit, Rakuten Bank, went public on the Tokyo Stock Exchange two years ago. Earlier this year, the company took steps toward listing Rakuten Securities on the same market again but canceled those plans after Mizuho Group acquired a stake in the company’s brokerage and card businesses.
And just as previous spin-offs allowed Rakuten to unlock value and attract strategic partners, a potential U.S. IPO could serve as the next step in extending its reach and influence beyond its home market.
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