amsterdam financial technology companies are putting ipo plans on hold and cutting expenses as fears of an impending recession cause a shift in how investors view the market at the money 2020 conference in amsterdam bosses of major fintech players sounded the alarm about the impact of a deteriorating macroeconomic climate on fundraising and valuations john collison cofounder and president of stripe said he was unsure if the company could justify its 95 billion valuation given the current economic environment the honest answer is i dont know collison said on stage tuesday stripe raised venture capital funding last year and is not currently looking to raise again he added it comes as buy now pay later firm klarna is reportedly looking to raise fresh funds at a 30 discount to its 46 billion valuation while rival group affirm has lost roughly two thirds of its stock market value since the start of 2022 zopa a digital bank based in britain had hoped to go public by the end of 2022 but this is looking less likely as inflation shocks exacerbated by the war in ukraine have led to a slump in both public and private markets the markets have to be there for zopa to go public ceo jaidev jardana told cnbc the markets are not there not for fin not for tech we will just have to wait for when the markets are in the right place he added you only want to do an ipo once so we want to make sure that we pick the right moment the tech sector has borne the brunt of a market selloff since the start of the year as investors digested the likelihood of a steep rate hiking cycle which makes growth stocks future earnings less attractive several executives and investors said rising inflation and interest rate hikes were making it harder for fintech firms to raise money within the investment community the mood is very grim iana dimitrova ceo of payment software firm openpayd told cnbc openpayd is in the process of raising funds but its unclear when the company will be able to finalize the round dimitrova said prajit nanu cofounder and ceo of san franciscobased payments company nium said hes expecting massive consolidation in fintech companies which are not going to raise are going to either get consolidated or shut down he said the big fear is that fintech growth will slow along with the economy at large as soaring prices force consumers to tighten their purse string economists at the world bank on tuesday cut their forecast for global economic growth warning of prolonged stagflation a situation where inflation remains high but growth stalls