Today, Chime is going public on the NASDAQ with a valuation set at $11.6 billion, exceeding the expected range. This elevated valuation, however, marks a substantial decline from its original valuation of $25 billion.
Chime’s move to go public has been years in the making, starting when co-founder and CEO Chris Britt initially announced plans to take the company public back in 2020.
In its IPO filing, the company stressed: “Chime is a technology company, not a bank,” highlighting that it’s not part of the U.S. Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation.
Britt told Goldman Sachs, “We really operate today mostly in the areas of spending and saving. We’ve got a high-yield savings account that we offer as well. But more recently, we’ve gotten into credit building. I think it’s very natural for us to get into lending, short-term lending, installment loans. You’d have to be living under a rock to not see the real trend around buy now, pay later. And I think that our members are using that sort of service, so we’re going to get into short-term lending for sure in the not-too-distant future.”
According to Chime’s press release late Wednesday, today’s offering “consists of 25,900,765 shares of Class A common stock to be sold by Chime and 6,099,235 shares of Class A common stock to be sold by existing stockholders (the “Selling Stockholders”). Chime will not receive any proceeds from the sale of shares of Class A common stock by the Selling Stockholders.”
Chime’s stock will be traded under the ticker symbol CHYM.
By CEO NA Editorial Staff
