Chime, a San Francisco- based consumer-friendly, zero-fee mobile banking start-up, revealed today that it has actually raised a $70 million Series C at a $500 million appraisal, led by Menlo Ventures
Chime, a mobile-first alternative to conventional banking, recently hit 1 million users and has processed over $ 4.5 billion to this day. Its platform provides a variety of familiar elements designed to streamline the banking experience, including a Visa debit card, a spending account, and an optional savings account.
Chime launched to consumers in mid-2014 but didn’t offer the suite of features that would allow people to use Chime as a primary bank account until early 2016.
“We think the next phase for us is going to be helping our members manage their credit and loans more effectively,” Chime CEO Chris Britt described in an interview with TechCrunch. “We think we can play a role in providing short-term lines of credit and helping members manage their debt.”
Chime’s growth is speeding up, it is gaining around 100,000 new accounts every month and expects to add more than $5 billion in transaction volume before the end of 2018. To keep up with this growth, Chime prepares to expand its eighty-person team in San Francisco to over a hundred.
In the same interview with TechCrunch, Britt discussed what he thinks the significant driver of users deciding to bypass the more conventional banks for Chime.
“What I wanted to do with this business was develop a product that would serve more mainstream customers — individuals who actually had accounts at Wells Fargo and Bank of America, however just aren’t particularly pleased with those guys for variety of factors — most likely first, and foremost, the way they structure the products are rather punitive.”
Additional investors that participated in the recent fundraising round include Aspect Ventures, Forerunner Ventures, Cathay Innovation, Northwestern Mutual, Omidyar Network and Crosslink Capital.
