OBSERVATIONS FROM THE FINTECH SNARK TANK
Bloomberg reported that Chime, the leading fintech neobank, is planning to go public in 2025. According to the report, Chime has not engaged investment banks to date. The unnamed source is a “person familiar with the matter” and a representative for the company declined to comment.
Chime hasn’t raised funds since 2021 when it was valued around $25 billion. The neobank has not reported on the number of customers it has for the past few years.
Chime Has 22 Million Customers
Consumer research conducted by Cornerstone Advisors sheds some light on Chime’s customer base and their demographics.
According to an April 2024 survey of US consumers, Cornerstone estimates that Chime has roughly 22.3 million customers—more than the number of checking account and/or payments customers of SoFi, Dave, MoneyLion, Varo Bank, and Current combined—roughly double Cornerstone’s 2021 estimate.
Cornerstone’s numbers don’t jive, however, with what some of the other fintechs have reported publicly.
Dave claims that it “serves 10 million members with banking, financial insights, overdraft protection, building credit, and finding side hustles.” That’s similar to MoneyLion, whose Q2 2023 securities filing claimed the company had “nearly” 10 million customers.
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Both claims may be true, but the Cornerstone survey asked consumers who they had a checking or payments account with. It’s possible that not all 10 million Dave or MoneyLion customers have those types of account.
How does Chime’s 24 million customer count compare to the megabanks?
Because banks like Bank of America, Chase, Wells Fargo and other large regional banks have highly diverse product lines, making a direct comparison of number of customers is nearly impossible.
Cornerstone found, however, that Chime isn’t far behind the three megabanks who are all very close to each other in the number of checking account customers they have, with Wells at 29.6 million checking account holders, Chase at 30.6 million, and BofA at 32.3 million.
Chime’s Primary Customer Base
Of Chime’s 23 million customers, nearly half consider the neobank to be their primary checking account provider. That works out to 4.4% of all American adults—7% of Gen Zers and Millennials, 5% of Gen Xers, and 1.7% of Baby Boomers.
In terms of primary checking account customers, the 10 leading providers—three of whom are digital-only providers—have captured more than half of all adult American relationships. The top three digital providers—Chime, PayPal, and Square—have roughly 10% of the market.
Compared to other leading neobanks, Chime has a significantly higher percentage of its overall customer base who consider the fintech their primary checking account providers. Just one in five Dave customers, a quarter of MoneyLion customers, 32% of Varo customers, and 38% of Current customers consider those neobanks their primary checking account provider.
Is Chime Ready For an IPO?
Chime has clearly demonstrated two important things in its path towards an IPO: 1) Sustained customer growth despite the “fintech winter,” and 2) It has maintained a high percentage of primary customers who transact more frequently.
The big question marks for Chime are: 1) Can it continue to capture emerging young consumers? 2) Will young customers “age out” of Chime as they get older? 3) Can Chime expand into credit? and 4) Can Chime capture more spending wallet share?
Chime’s Customer Demographics Differ From the Megabanks
Not surprisingly, Chime customers skew to the younger side—just one in four Chime customers is 45 years old or older. In contrast, 40% of Wells Fargo and Chase checking account customers are Gen Xers, Baby Boomers, or older.
Chime customers have lower levels of income compared to the large banks. Half of Chime customer earn $35,000 a year or less, and just 15% earn more than $75,000. Among Bank of America customers, half make more than $75,000.
These demographics make it difficult for Chime to expand into credit products.
Chime Can Diversify Revenue Streams
Asked back in 2022 by CNBC how Chime makes money, Britt responded:
“[We’re] really more of a payments business. Our members use us for their every day spending and we make a small part of that transaction when the card gets used at the point of sale.”
Well, not all members.
A growing number of banks and credit unions are bundling digitally-delivered products and services like roadside assistance, cell phone damage protection, and identity theft protection with their checking accounts as a means to grow revenue.
Across 14 different types of services, a 2022 study from Cornerstone found that a high percentage of Chime customers are very interested in getting those services bundled with a Chime checking account.
What’s Chime Worth?
Forbes notes that Chime’ 2021 raise was valued at $25 billion but that secondary-market activity in 2023 put the company’s value at around $8 billion. According to Caplight, Chime’s value has dropped to $6.5 billion as of early March 8.
Valuation at many fintechs have dropped since 2022 as many proved to not have sustainable revenue and/or business models.
Chime has bucked that trend. Although it may not yet be profitable, it has shown it can maintain strong customer growth and primary status.
