One of many 12 months’s most anticipated IPOs happened on Thursday when neobank Chime raised $864 million in its IPO, pricing its shares at $27, which is above its beforehand introduced vary of $24 to $26. That gave it a beginning market cap of about $9.8 billion.
Whereas some would level out that that is far beneath its final non-public valuation of $25 billion, in accordance with PitchBook’s estimates, shares opened at $42, placing it at $14.5 by noon in heavy buying and selling, in accordance with Yahoo Finance. It closed the day at $37 and a couple of $12 billion market cap. That’s nonetheless properly shy of it’s yesteryear excessive, however it was a wholesome response from retail buyers all the identical.
The hungry response is essentially as a consequence of some spectacular financials. Chime reported $1.3 billion in income in 2023 and $1.7 billion in 2024. Losses shrank from $203 million in 2023 to $25 million in 2024. It grew to become worthwhile in its first quarter of 2025 with $13 million of web revenue on $519 million in income — though the corporate warns it might not keep within the black because it spends on development.
Nonetheless, no founder journey is all the time up and to the precise, and that has been very true for Chime. The corporate had its share of struggles, like layoffs in 2022 and a struggle with regulators in 2021 that forbade it from calling itself a “bank.”
However the greatest wrestle of all of them was when it virtually died earlier than it even raised a Sequence B.
“We founded the company in 2012, and the first, really, five or six years was very difficult in terms of convincing investors to invest in the idea and the business. It was just way, way harder than I expected,” co-founder Ryan King and the corporate’s unique CTO advised TechCrunch (he’s presently a board member and a principal shareholder).
“In the beginning of 2016, specifically, we were trying to raise an extension to our Series A and we pitched 100 investors, maybe more, and got 100 no’s,” he stated.
Chime was virtually out of cash at that time, he stated. He and co-founder and CEO Chris Britt nonetheless believed within the mission: an internet financial institution expertise, aimed on the working class, that was free for customers, making its cash on interchange charges. Chime, as an illustration, doesn’t cost overdraft charges, and it provides credit-building instruments like cash-secured “credit cards.”
However VC after VC appeared on the closely regulated trade it was making an attempt to disrupt, and its admittedly meager development by that point, and handed.
King remembers studying a tech press article about how the founders of Robinhood pitched 50 to 75 buyers, and solely bought a few time period sheets, scoffing to himself, “I get 50 no’s in a week,” he stated, smiling about it now.
So what occurred to save lots of Chime? A single seed investor stated sure: Lauren Kolodny, then a companion at Side Ventures, right this moment a co-founder of Acrew Capital. Kolodny led Chime’s $9 million extension.
“She really took a bet on Chris and I, and believed in our passion and zeal and sort of attitude,” he stated. “It was the only term sheet we had at the time.” She remained such an enormous supporter that Chime invited her to the rostrum to ring the opening bell at Nasdaq.
That test introduced Chime’s complete increase to $21 million on the time. Britt and King would go on to boost about $2.65 billion as a personal firm, PitchBook estimates. Just a few years later it could be chased by renown VCs like Iconiq.
In the meantime, Kolodny saved the corporate by shopping for in at 26 cents per share, in accordance with the firm’s disclosure of share costs of its non-public rounds. So nonetheless many billions Thursday’s valuation landed on, she clearly nonetheless wins. (Kolodny didn’t instantly reply to our request for remark.)
But, the icing on the cake for King got here through the firm’s street present, the place it was pitching institutional buyers to purchase its IPO shares.
Whereas being requested for ID by the safety guard in a white-marbled constructing that appeared like a set from the HBO present “Billions,” the guard noticed Britt’s Chime card in his pockets.
“And the security guard says, ‘Oh, I see that Chime card.’ And he winks at us,” King stated. The founders requested if he was a Chime buyer and the guard replied, “Checking and savings, baby!” and gave the founders a excessive 5.
