Finance · Profile from Finance Research Companion
Chime Financial, Inc.
The largest US consumer neobank, a San Francisco financial-technology company that is not itself a bank. It offers fee-free checking accounts, debit cards, a fee-free overdraft cushion (SpotMe), earned-wage advances (MyPay), a secured credit card and small loans to Americans who mostly earn under ~$75,000 a year. The deposits sit at two small partner banks, The Bancorp Bank and Stride Bank. Because both have under $10bn of assets, they are exempt from the Durbin cap on debit interchange, and that interchange, shared with Chime, has been most of its revenue for most of its history. Founded in 2012 by Chris Britt and Ryan King, Chime was valued at ~$25bn privately in August 2021. It listed on Nasdaq in June 2025 at $27 a share (~$11.6bn fully diluted). It reported ~$2.2bn of 2025 revenue and 9.5m active members, turned GAAP-profitable in the first quarter of 2026, and in September 2026 agreed to buy Stride Bank for $590m in cash to become a bank holding company with its own national bank.
At a glance
- Founded
- 2012 in San Francisco by Chris Britt and Ryan King; public launch April 2014 (reported)
- Founders
- Chris Britt (CEO; previously at Visa and Green Dot, reported) and Ryan King (CTO; previously at Plaxo, reported)
- Headquarters
- San Francisco, California
- Ownership / structure
- Chime Financial, Inc., Nasdaq: CHYM since June 12, 2025, with dual-class shares (Class A and Class B, founders holding high-vote stock, reported). Chime is a financial-technology company, not a bank. Accounts are issued by The Bancorp Bank, N.A. (Wilmington, Delaware) and Stride Bank, N.A. (Enid, Oklahoma), members FDIC. Chime is licensed as a money transmitter in many states (verify scope)
- Leadership
- Chris Britt (co-founder, CEO); Ryan King (co-founder); Mark Troughton (President; interim CFO from August 2026 after CFO Matt Newcomb stepped down) (company)
- Segment and customers
- Consumer fintech / neobank for "everyday Americans": hourly and salaried workers living close to payday; Chime says most members earn under ~$75,000 a year (S-1, reported)
- Scale
- 9.5m active members at end-2025 (+19%; 8.0m end-2024, 6.6m end-2023, FY2025 10-K), 10.4m at June 30, 2026 (+20%) (company); earlier "accounts" counts (~8m Feb 2020, ~12m+ 2021, reported) measure accounts opened, not active members; purchase volume ~$134bn in 2025 (FY2025 10-K, reported) and $38bn in Q2 2026 alone (company)
- Financials
- Revenue ~$1.28bn (2023, reported), ~$1.67bn (2024, S-1, reported), ~$2.2bn (2025, +31%); net loss ~$1.0bn in 2025 driven by ~$928m of IPO-related stock compensation; adjusted EBITDA ~$127m (2025); GAAP net income $53m (Q1 2026) and $27.9m (Q2 2026) (company)
- Market value
- ~$25bn private (Series G, August 2021); ~$11.6bn fully diluted at the $27 IPO price; ~$13.5bn at the first-day close of $37.11 (reported); shares fell below the IPO price from late September 2025 (reported)
- Signature moves (incl. failures)
- Fee-free account on partner banks (2014); "get paid early" and the primary-account strategy; SpotMe (2019); Credit Builder (2020); the funding climb to $25bn (2019–21); account closures and the "bank" name settlements (2021); delayed IPO and layoffs (2022); CFPB and California enforcement (2024); MyPay (2024); Nasdaq IPO (2025); Stride Bank purchase (2026)
10 strategic moves analysed
Each one gets a full strategy file in the companion: context, the decision, the financing, what happened, and the lesson.
2014
Fee Free Account on Partner Banks
Launch
2019
SpotMe Fee Free Overdraft
Launch / pricing change
2020
Credit Builder Secured Card
Launch
2021
Account Closures and Bank Name Settlements
Failure / regulatory settlement
2021
Series G at 25bn
Funding round
2022
Delayed IPO and Layoffs
Restructuring
2024
CFPB and California Enforcement
Regulatory settlement
2024
MyPay Earned Wage Advances
Launch
2025
Nasdaq IPO
IPO
2026
Stride Bank Acquisition
Acquisition