Mobile banking startup Chime announced Friday it raised $485 million in Series F funding, bringing its total valuation to $14.5 billion. Investors in the round include Iconiq, Tiger Global and General Atlantic.
Founded in 2013, Chime provides users with banking accounts, debit cards and ATM access, focusing mainly on individuals who earn between $30,000 and $75,000 a year. Unlike most big banks, the company doesn’t charge fees. Instead, it makes money each time a customer uses their credit or debit card. The Chime app also serves as a financial planning tool, allowing users to stay up to date on their spending and saving patterns.
According to CNBC, which first reported the story, this deal makes Chime the most valuable fintech startup serving retail customers in America.
Chime raised $200 million back in March of 2019, elevating it to unicorn status, and then another $700 million back in December. Since then, CEO Chris Britt told CNBC that the company has tripled its transaction volume and become profitable on an EBITDA (earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization) basis during the pandemic.
Britt also claims Chime will be “IPO ready” in the next year.
In the meantime, a source with knowledge of the situation told CNBC that this latest funding round means Chime has nearly $1 billion of cash in its coffers, which it will use to fuel its growth. In fact, the company appears to be in the midst of a big hiring push at its San Francisco HQ right now, listing dozens of open positions across its marketing, design, engineering, operations and product departments on its Built In page.
Chime is not the only fintech company growing in the midst of the pandemic. Stock brokerage startup Robinhood has raised $480 million since May between two giant funding rounds — a Series F and a Series G — telling Built In back in July that it is hiring aggressively in all its offices.
