Latest news with #ChrisBritt
Yahoo
5 days ago
- Business
- Yahoo
Chime seeks $832M in next week's Nasdaq IPO
This story was originally published on Banking Dive. To receive daily news and insights, subscribe to our free daily Banking Dive newsletter. Fintech Chime said Monday it seeks to raise up to $832 million through its initial public offering. The San Francisco-based fintech is offering 32 million shares of Class A common stock priced between $24 and $26 per share. Out of the 32 million shares, around 25.9 million will be offered by Chime, while nearly 6.1 million shares will be offered by existing shareholders. Additionally, Chime plans to grant the underwriters a 30-day option to purchase up to an additional 4.8 million of its Class A common stock, according to an amended filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. Chime, founded in 2012 by Chris Britt and Ryan King, has dubbed itself a digital banking alternative offering fee-free banking. The fintech's probable IPO date, as noted on Nasdaq, is June 12, and the offer amount, as set by Chime, is $956.8 million, with approximately 332 million shares outstanding. Chime intends to list its Class A common stock on Nasdaq under the ticker symbol 'CHYM.' In the SEC filing Chime noted that it is not a bank and its banking services are provided by The Bancorp Bank and Stride Bank, which offer Federal Deposit Insurance Corp.-insured accounts. Chime is targeting a valuation of up to $11.2 billion on a fully diluted basis, Reuters reported. While filing S-1 paperwork with the SEC last month, Chime had said the number of shares to be offered and the price range for the proposed offering have not yet been determined. According to Brian Graham, a partner at financial service advisory and investment firm Klaros Group, Chime waited to declare the stock price 'to test the waters and figure out investor appetites' on what price they were willing to pay. When a company is going public for the first time, it tries to compare itself to a similar entity; for Chime, that's Dave. For a company such as Circle, it would be Coinbase, Graham said. The increase in the stock price of Chime competitors signals a rebound in investor interest in this sector, while the recent surge in IPOs is driven by rising stock prices of these publicly traded fintech companies, Graham pointed out. Stablecoin issuer Circle also filed IPO paperwork last month and aims to raise $624 million through the sale of its Class A common stock. Meanwhile, eToro, a social investment fintech founded in Israel, said last month it intended to raise $500 million through its IPO. The stock prices of fintech companies dropped sharply in late 2022, largely due to rising interest rates and increased risk aversion by investors. However, since late 2024, stock prices have recovered, and along with that, there has been an increased interest in IPOs, Graham clarified. Investor perspectives drive market prices, and their desire to own fintech stocks influences stock prices, he noted. 'If you can sell what you're trying to sell for a lot more, you're more likely to want to sell it,' Graham said. For Chime to understand what investors think about its valuation, it needs to communicate with them. But a company is not legally permitted to discuss its market standing until it files an S-1 – a prerequisite for such a conversation, according to Graham. Chime executives may have had several conversations with investors to gauge their appetite and market conditions before setting the price range, he added. Other factors contributing to the uptick in IPOs include a more favorable regulatory environment and a greater acceptance of lower valuations than previously anticipated, Graham noted. In the case of neobanks, 'less adversarial and less negative' guidance towards bank-fintech partnerships is proving beneficial for the fintechs, he said. Tariff-related volatility, however, has pushed back IPO plans for other fintechs, such as buy now, pay later firm Klarna and ticketing platform StubHub. Further, Klarna's reported loss for the first quarter totaled $99 million – up from the $47 million loss it reported a year ago. The company has paused its IPO plan, which was set to value the firm at over $15 billion. Chime's revenue reached $1.67 billion in 2024 – up from $1.28 billion in 2023, while its loss decreased from $203 million in 2023 to $25 million in 2024, according to the company. Companies that hold 5% or more of Chime's capital stock include DST Global, Crosslink Capital, AI Bells, General Atlantic, Menlo Ventures and Cathay Innovation, according to the SEC filing. Though fintechs are pursuing IPOs after a two-year lull, Graham doubts it's going to open the IPO floodgates. Not every fintech company is mature enough to handle the costs and scrutiny that come with being a public company, he added. The recent IPOs could go either way and steer the market depending on whether they are successful or not, according to Deven Monga, vice president of Sales at iDeals, a global software-as-a-service company that back M&A, IPOs, and venture capital deals. 'If Chime, Circle and other similar companies are successful in their IPOs, this could encourage more fintech companies to look at IPOs as a way to raise capital, grow their profile and improve their offerings,' Monga said via email. 'Conversely, we could see more companies explore mergers and acquisitions as an avenue for growth should Chime, Circle and others be unsuccessful in their IPOs. This is particularly true as traditional financial institutions like banks look to expand their tech offerings and could look to acquire fintech companies to do so.' Recommended Reading Chime files for IPO Error in retrieving data Sign in to access your portfolio Error in retrieving data Error in retrieving data Error in retrieving data Error in retrieving data
Yahoo
02-06-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
Chime chases $11 billion valuation in IPO set for next week on Nasdaq
Chime Financial on Monday kicked off the roadshow for its much anticipated IPO that could value the neobank at roughly $11 billion, a more than 50% drop from its $25 billion valuation in 2021. Chime is scheduled to begin trading on the Nasdaq on Thursday, June 12. The impending IPO will offer 32 million shares at a price range of $24 to $26 each, according to a June 2 regulatory filing. (About 26 million is coming from Chime itself while stockholders are providing an additional 6 million.) At the top of its expected range, Chime could raise as much as $832 million. In 2021, Chime was one of the buzziest fintech unicorns when it was valued at $25 billion but valuations of fintech firms, along with venture funding, have plummeted since then. On an undiluted basis, Chime is targeting a market value of $9.47 billion. But when Chime includes items such as stock options and restricted stock units, or RSUs, its valuation jumps to about $11 billion on a fully diluted basis. Fourteen banks are listed as working on the Chime's IPO with Morgan Stanley, Goldman Sachs and JPMorgan serving as lead underwriters on the deal. Chime's offering comes at a time when the IPO market, which has crawled since 2021, is on an upswing. Circle Internet Group, which is going public later this week, increased the size of its deal and price range Monday. Circle is now looking to sell 32 million shares at $27 to $28 each, up from 24 million at $24 to $26 each. Circle, which could raise as much as $896 million, is now targeting a $7.2 billion valuation. When a company increases the size of its offering and raises its price range, this typically signals strong investor demand. Circle's IPO is said to be oversubscribed, and the company is scheduled to price the deal on Wednesday and trade Thursday. Founded in 2012, Chime offers traditional financial services, like fee-free checking and savings accounts, to lower income U.S. consumers that earn up to $100,000 a year. The startup had 8.6 million active members as of March 31, with two-thirds relying on Chime as their primary bank, according to a regulatory filing. Roughly 70% of its members use Chime to buy food, groceries, gas and utilities. As of March 31, the startup employed 1,465 workers, or 'Chimers,' spread across three offices, including one-third in San Francisco. Chris Britt, Chime's cofounder and CEO, owns the largest stake in the fintech and will have 39% of total voting power after the IPO is completed, according to the SEC filing. Ryan King, also a cofounder and Chime board member, will have about 35.5% of voting power. Neither is selling shares. Investors DST Global, which led Chime's $200 million round in 2019, will have 5.4% total voting power after the offering is completed, while Crosslink Capital will own 3% and General Atlantic will have 2%. They are also not selling shares. Among the sellers is VC firm Cathay Innovation, which is off loading the biggest chunk of stock, 3.75 million shares, and will have a 1.2% voting stake after the IPO. Cathay could make as much as $97.5 million. The regulatory filing also lists Jay McGraw, who is apparently the TV producer and son of Dr. Phil McGraw or 'Dr. Phil.' McGraw is selling 350,000 shares and at $26, he could reap $9.1 million. McGraw could not immediately be reached for comment. This story was originally featured on
Business Journals
29-05-2025
- Business
- Business Journals
Daily Digest: 1,000 S.F. City Hall layoffs reported, Nvidia is market cap king again
Happy Thursday, Bay Area. In national news, a federal court in New York on Wednesday ruled to block President Trump from imposing widespread tariffs on imports under an emergency-powers law. However, Trump might still be able to temporarily launch import taxes of 15% for 150 days on nations with which the U.S. runs a large trade deficit, Bloomberg reports, as the ruling stipulates that a president has such authority. In aviation, United Airlines Holdings Inc. and JetBlue Airways Corp. agreed to a new partnership this week that will allow travelers to use loyalty points and book flights across the two carriers. Through the partnership, United will also be gaining access to New York's JFK airport, Boston and the Caribbean. In retail news, the Bay Area-born chain Mountain Mike's Pizza is entering the Washington, D.C., market amid a franchise-driven expansion, having struck a three-unit deal. Friends and co-owners Chris Britt and Ed St. Geme, who did their undergrad work at Stanford University in Palo Alto, opened the original parlor next to the campus in 1978. Also in food chains, Morgan Hill gets its first Chick-fil-A location on Thursday as the Atlanta-based chain is set to open its doors at 18599 Sutter Blvd., the 29th location in the Bay Area. And finally on Wall Street, Nvidia Corp. shares (Nasdaq: NVDA) jumped about 4% after the company posted positive earnings. The Santa Clara designer and manufacturer of graphics processing units, or GPUs, has seen its stock rise about 30% over the past month, helping it take back the crown of as the world's most valuable company by overtaking Microsoft Corp. Apple Inc. is third followed by Inc. and Google parent company Alphabet Inc. Here's the rest of the day's money matters in both government and the private sector. GET TO KNOW YOUR CITY Find Local Events Near You Connect with a community of local professionals. Explore All Events New Oakland financial forecast highlights expected two-year shortfall A newly released Oakland budget report — a five-year financial forecast typically put out ahead of the city's biannual budget cycle — now predicts the city's annual deficits through 2030 will range from $115 million to $126 million in the general purpose fund, the East Bay Times reports. 'Regardless of this forecast or what actually happens in the economy, the city remains underfunded with regard to meeting (pension) obligations for current and past city employees to the tune of more than $1.2 billion,' according to the city report, which was prepared by Oakland's budget officials. In positive news, though, the new forecast places the expected two-year shortfall at $245 million as opposed to the previous estimate of $265 million. expand Barbara Lee was recently sworn in as Oakland's new mayor. Christie Hemm Klok/ San Francisco's budget deficit comes with layoffs San Francisco Mayor Daniel Lurie intends to eliminate roughly 1,000 jobs to close the city's $782 million gap, the SF Standard reports, noting that most of those positions are currently vacant or occupied by employees slated for retirement. But the cuts could also include eliminating positions in up to 17 departments. The details of the mayor's budget were shared in a Wednesday meeting between the mayor's staff and communications directors for city departments, according to the report. expand San Francisco Mayor Daniel Lurie Adam Pardee S.F. hotel room rates expected to increase in 2025 In hotel news, a new CBRE report anticipates that San Francisco's hotel room rates are expected to hit 8.4% this year, outpacing the expected national average of 1.3%. Sacramento's predicted growth rate came in second among Northern California markets at 4.5%, followed by San Jose at 4.4%, Oakland at 2.9% and Napa wine country at 2.2%. S.F. telehealth company revises IPO terms San Francisco virtual health care provider Omada Health on Thursday set IPO terms to 7.9 million shares at $18-$20. It would have a $1.2 billion fully diluted market value, were it to price in the middle, and plans to list on the Nasdaq under the symbol "OMDA." Omada raised around $450 million in VC funding from Revelation Partners, USVP, a16z, Cigna Ventures, aMoon and NVP. It is expected to begin trading the week of June 9. Sign up for the Business Times' free morning and afternoon daily newsletters to receive the latest business news driving change in San Francisco. Download the free San Francisco Business Times app for breaking news alerts on your phone. Funding Watch Chalk, a San Francisco data platform for AI, raised $50 million in Series A funding. Felicis led, joined by Triatomic Capital and insiders General Catalyst, Unusual Ventures and Xfund. M&A Watch Santa Clara's AMD (Nasdaq: AMD) acquired Enosemi, a Sacramento-based maker of photonics subsystems whose backers included Convergent Ventures and Pack Ventures. People on the Move Billionaire Elon Musk's more than 114-day long tenure as a DOGE special government employee officially ended on Wednesday. The Tesla CEO departed a day after he called a Republican bill to fund Trump's agenda "disappointing." Roblox Corp. has hired Sebastian Barrios to lead its engineering for user, discovery, ads and brands and economy. He previously served as CTO at Cabify, Spain's first unicorn, and as SVP of Technology at Mercado Libre, Latin America's most valuable public company. San Jose-based PayPal Ventures named Ian Cox Moya as managing partner, succeeding James Loftus, who joined Velocity Global as CFO, Axios reports. Layoff Watch The Hewlett Packard Enterprise Co., or HPE, earlier this month laid off 61 employees at 6280 America Center Dr. in San Jose. Advanced Pressure Technology is laying off 89 employees at 687 Technology Way in Napa, effective July 26. Real Estate Watch Known as the Williams-Sonoma House, the longtime home of the late W. Howard Lester, former president and CEO of Williams-Sonoma, is now on the market for $9.25 million. The three-bedroom home sits on nearly nine acres adjacent to Jack London State Park in the Sonoma County town of Glen Ellen. It's listed by Daniel Casabonne and Gina Clyde with Sotheby's International Realty – Wine Country - Sonoma Brokerage. expand A peek inside 1500 Morningside Mtn. Rd. in Glen Ellen. Zillow Media Experts for Sotheby's International Realty Final thought … Thinking about selling your old Bay Area home? It could cost you. A lot, actually. As the spring home selling season moves into its final stretch of 2025, a perfect storm of new regulations and norms have made it more expensive than ever to get that home ready for market. Here are five reasons why. DOWNLOAD the free SFBT app for breaking news alerts on your phone.
Forbes
28-05-2025
- Business
- Forbes
How Investor Satya Patel Spots Billion-Dollar Winners In Boring Industries
AsChime CEO Chris Britt sat in his San Francisco boardroom in 2015, he had a choice to make. The next-gen banking company was getting ready to introduce a new feature that rounds a transaction up to the nearest dollar amount and automatically transfers the difference to your savings account. Britt was sure it would take the company to the next level, extending its scope to more core banking features beyond rewards. The hitch: Bank of America was threatening to sue if Chime launched it, Britt told Forbes. The 120-plus-year-old bank had tried to thwart the startup by claiming it had similar patents, said Satya Patel, a partner at the venture firm Homebrew who'd invested $1 million in the then-fledgling Chime. Sitting in the meeting, Patel had some sage guidance for Britt: Do it anyway. 'There would be nothing better for a young startup than to be sued by Bank of America,' he recalls telling the founder. 'And for us and them to make a ton of noise about it.' Chime launched the feature, and it proved critical to the startup's growth in those early years. Bank of America never sued (the bank didn't respond to a request for comment). 'Satya knew when to get into our business and where to push, and where to pull back and let us do our thing,' said Britt. 'It's a fine line.' The gutsy call exemplifies why Patel has ranked No. 13 on this year's Midas Seed list, Forbes' annual ranking of venture capital's top early stage investors. Patel refers to his broad philosophy as a VC as 'bottom up' investing — betting on companies from 'boring' industries like HR or banking, and gussying them up with high-tech software. Other prescient bets include Gusto, an online payroll platform last valued at $9.6 billion; Headway, a mental health app worth $2.3 billion; and Plaid, which lets people connect apps to bank accounts, acquired by Visa in 2020 for $5.3 billion. Now Chime is headed to its own exit. The company, last valued at $25 billion, filed its IPO prospectus earlier this month, with 2024 revenue of $1.7 billion. Many of Patel's bets have benefitted from his early guidance as they expanded. For Shield, a $5 billion-valued drone maker, Patel's big stamp on the company was in helping it to grow beyond the seed stage. 'Satya just, over and over again, put himself out there, put his reputation on the line to introduce us to top quality investors,' said CEO Ryan Tseng. 'I've always felt like he's had my back.' (Challenges have arisen, like when the company's V-BAT drone was involved in an accident that left a U.S. service member's fingers partially severed, Forbes reported.) 'It gave me an early appreciation for science and what science can enable, both the positive and potentially the negative.' When it comes to defense tech, Patel has bona fides as well. His mom was a banker, and his dad was an engineer for Raytheon, working at a nuclear test site. As a child growing up in suburban Las Vegas, far from the din of the Strip, Patel knew little of what his dad did because of his father's security clearance. He finally got a closeup look during the summer after his freshman year of college at the University of Pennsylvania, when he took an internship at Raytheon himself and worked at the same site. 'It gave me an early appreciation for science and what science can enable, both the positive and potentially the negative,' Patel said. Patel's venture career began right after the internet went mainstream. In 1997, he took a job at GeoCapital Partners in New York City, a firm started in 1984, where his job was to call up founders all day long, hunting for the next Amazon or Netscape. But the gig taught him the virtues of pounding the pavement to find promising new talent. 'Most companies didn't have websites,' he said. 'I think I subscribed to 200 trades to find companies. I'd walk conference floors.' But after a few years in venture, in 2003 Patel joined Google, working on the company's AdSense team, a key element of the company's juggernaut digital ad operation. Eight years later, he joined Twitter as a vice president of product. But he quickly grew bored as the company slowed its product development roadmap in preparation for its 2012 IPO. So he decided to return to his venture roots. While at Google, Patel had met Hunter Walk, a product manager and a member of the founding team at Linden Lab, the creators of Second Life. The two started at the tech giant the same year and sat 'three-to-five feet' away from each other, Walk said. They became fast friends, and in 2013 cofounded Homebrew after deciding to leave big tech. The VC firm, named after the Homebrew Computer Club, a 1960s and 70s enthusiast club in Menlo Park, California, that counted Apple's Steve Jobs and Steve Wozniak as its members, writes seed-stage checks of typically $1 to $3 million. The two partners are still so close that they often share a room when they travel. 'Now it's our beds that are three to five feet from each other,' Walk says. While Walk made a name for himself as a product leader and investor by posting actively on Twitter (before its transformation to X), Patel's social media presence is almost non-existent. The dynamic extends to their approaches to investing as well. Patel will often be the partner with fewer words, delivering hard truths with no cheerleading. Walk describes himself as a storyteller. 'In meetings, I'll tell him, 'Satya, I'm going to take five minutes that we don't have to give this answer. Can you give the better answer in 30 seconds?'' Outside of Homebrew, Patel cofounded Screendoor, a fund that invests in and supports first-time VC managers, along with Walk and other investors including Cowboy Ventures' Aileen Lee and First Round Capital's Rob Hayes. The goal is to back VCs that Screendoor believes could bring fresh perspectives and new ideas to venture capital by committing to contribute at least 10% when VC raises their own fund for the first time. For Britt, who called Patel one of the best, 'if not the best,' seed investors in the world, Patel's strength is in his experience as both an investor and product executive, balancing between the details and big picture. 'He understands the role of an early stage investor,' he said. 'Sometimes it's more art than science.' Additional reporting by Stephen Pastis.
Yahoo
14-05-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
Chime files for IPO
This story was originally published on Banking Dive. To receive daily news and insights, subscribe to our free daily Banking Dive newsletter. Fintech Chime filed S-1 paperwork Tuesday with the Securities and Exchange Commission for an initial public offering. San Francisco-based Chime intends to list its Class A common stock on the Nasdaq under the ticker symbol 'CHYM.' The company said the number of shares to be offered and the price range for the proposed offering have not yet been determined. Chime's revenue reached $1.67 billion in 2024 – up from $1.28 billion in 2023, while its loss decreased from $203 million in 2023 to $25 million in 2024. Chime's IPO follows that of social investment fintech eToro, founded in Israel, which sought to raise $500 million through its public offering last week. Tariff-related volatility, however, pushed back other IPO plans for buy now, pay later firm Klarna and ticketing platform StubHub. Chime, founded in 2o12 by Chris Britt and Ryan King, has dubbed itself a digital banking alternative offering fee-free banking. Chime was valued at $25 billion after raising $750 million in a funding round in 2021. As of March 2025, Chime had 8.6 million active members, marking a 23% year-over-year increase, according to the S-1 filing. Nearly two-thirds of its members count Chime as their primary 'financial relationship.' 'Looking ahead, with less than five percent adoption in our core target market, we see an enormous opportunity to grow for years to come,' Britt and King wrote in a letter accompanying the filing, adding that the fintech's primary account relationships 'uniquely' position it to expand into adjacent markets. 'Breakthrough in [artificial intelligence], combined with our extensive dataset and platform, give us an advantage that can continue to compound – enabling us to make leaps forward in efficiency, innovation, and member experience,' they said. In its filing, Chime stressed it 'is a technology company, not a bank' and is not a member of the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. Banking services offered through the fintech are provided by The Bancorp Bank and Stride Bank, which offer FDIC-insured accounts. Chime's public offering is led by Morgan Stanley, Goldman Sachs and JP Morgan Chase. Chime reported that its operating activities resulted in a net cash outflow of $25.8 million. The increase in working capital of $125.3 million was partially offset by positive net income of $12.9 million and non-cash adjustments of $86.6 million. Going public is intended to increase Chime's capitalization and financial flexibility, and enable access to public equity markets. The company wants to use the net proceeds from the offering for general corporate purposes, including working capital, operating expenses, and capital expenditures. Chime might also use a portion of the proceeds to acquire or invest in businesses, products, services, or technologies, although it does not have any acquisitions or investments in the pipeline currently. Additionally, Chime said it plans to use some proceeds to satisfy its anticipated tax withholding and remittance obligations related to the restricted stock unit settlement. In its SEC filing, Chime argued that traditional banking systems cannot cater to the needs of Americans living paycheck-to-paycheck, highlighting that 85% of its new members who direct deposit through Chime left another direct deposit relationship, most commonly with large traditional banks. Those incumbents rely on a net interest margin-based business model, with nearly 70% of their revenue coming from customer deposits and lending, Chime said. However, Chime referred to traditional banks, including Bank of America, Capital One, Citi, JPMorgan Chase, PNC and Wells Fargo, as its main rivals, with Nubank and Revolut as potential competitors if they expand in the U.S. 'Banking remains one of the largest and most analog industries to be disrupted,' the founders noted. 'Like so many other categories, the winner will be a digital-first platform that relentlessly innovates and becomes indispensable in the lives of our customers.' Chime generates much of its revenue through interchange fees, when its customers spend using a Chime-branded debit or credit card, rather than fees paid by customers. Chime members typically use these cards for their everyday, non-discretionary expenses, with nearly 70% of purchases made for food and groceries, gas, and utilities expenses. In the first quarter of 2025, Chime's members interacted with its app at an average of 141 times per month and completed an average of 54 transactions each month. For the first quarter, Chime's average revenue per active user rose to $251 – up from $231 in the first quarter of 2024. From the first quarter of 2022 to the first quarter of 2025, average revenue per active member grew at an average annualized rate of 6%, reflecting an increase in member engagement, new products, and monetization, the company noted. Chime has launched several new products and tools in recent years. In March, the fintech rolled out instant loans, offering customers access to up to $500 at a fixed rate, without having to go through a credit check. Chime has also added financial wellness services that are available through employers and expanded its overdraft service. Other products include Chime+, a free, premium membership tier that offers additional features to enhance members' mobile banking experiences. Chime's investors include DST Global, Crosslink Capital, AI Bells, General Atlantic, Menlo Ventures, Sino French (Innovation) Fund and ICONIQ Strategic Partners.
