Chime Raises $864M in Successful IPO, Valued at $11.6B

Chime, a prominent financial technology company based in the United States, successfully concluded its initial public offering (IPO) on Wednesday, raising 864 million dollars. The company priced its shares at 27 dollars per share, exceeding the initially proposed price range of 24 to 26 dollars per share. This strategic move allowed Chime to secure a total of 32 million shares, significantly boosting its market presence and financial standing.

The IPO's success is a testament to the growing investor confidence in the fintech sector. Chime's decision to set the price above the upper limit of the proposed range indicates a strong demand for its shares, reflecting the company's robust business model and future growth prospects. The final valuation of Chime, based on fully diluted shares, stands at approximately 11.6 billion dollars, making it one of the largest IPOs in the fintech industry in recent years.

Chime was founded in 2012 by former Visa high executive Chris Britt and former Comcast employee Ryan King. The company provides financial services through partnerships with physical banks, offering user-friendly products such as branded checking accounts with features like fee-free overdrafts. This IPO comes at a time when the industry's valuation has retreated from the peak driven by the COVID-19 pandemic, during which fintech and e-commerce companies received substantial investments.

In its last major funding round in 2021, Chime was valued at 25 billion dollars, with notable investors including Yuri Milner's DST Global, private equity firm General Atlantic, and investment firm ICONIQ. The company's stock is set to begin trading on the Nasdaq Global Select Market on Thursday under the ticker symbol "CHYM."

This IPO follows the strong market debut of Circle, a stablecoin issuer, in early June, injecting new energy into the U.S. IPO market, which has been dampened by uncertainties surrounding Trump administration tariff policies. Chime had initially planned to go public earlier this year but delayed its plans due to market volatility triggered by Trump's "Independence Day" tariff announcement. The recent recovery of the IPO market has encouraged more companies to resume their listing plans, with June emerging as a critical window—companies aim to capitalize on the relatively stable market conditions before the traditional summer slowdown.

As of March 31, Chime had 8.6 million active members. The company's first-quarter financials showed that each active member contributed an average of 251 dollars in revenue, with an average of 54 transactions per month, 75% of which were consumption transactions using Chime-branded cards. Chime's primary revenue source is interchange fees, which are the transaction fees paid by merchants to payment networks like Visa when customers use Chime debit or credit cards.

For the fiscal year ending December 31, Chime's net loss per share narrowed to 0.39 dollars, a significant improvement from 3.22 dollars in 2023 and 8.12 dollars in 2022. Morgan Stanley, Goldman Sachs, and JPMorgan Chase served as the lead underwriters for this IPO.