Chime Stock Jumps at IPO but Comes In Below Private Market Valuations

Despite notching a lower valuation than what it saw at its peak in the private market, Chime Financial CHYM closed its first day of trading on the Nasdaq at $37.11 per share, a 37% bump over its IPO price.

Chime priced its IPO at $27 per share, giving it a fully diluted market cap of $11.6 billion—a hefty 54% discount from the company’s peak $25 billion valuation in 2021. It did initial target pricing of $24-$26. The stock moved lower in its second day on the market, losing more than 6% to just south of $35 per share.

Headquartered in San Francisco, Chime gained traction by appealing to US consumers who have traditionally had difficulty accessing traditional financial institutions. Its initial pitch of ditching fees and minimum balance requirements was an early pull, according to Shawn Carolan, who led Menlo Ventures’ early investment into Chime and is on its board. “We just saw that banking was broken for a lot of the country, and if you make less than $100,000, you’re treated very poorly by the system,” he says.

Chime makes most of its money from interchange fees, which are paid by a merchant to a customer’s bank. The company generated a profit of $12.9 million on $518.7 million in revenue in the first quarter of 2025, though it was not profitable in the three years prior, according to its SEC filings. In 2022, it had net losses of $470.3 million, which shrunk to $203.3 million in 2023 and $25.3 million in 2024.

VCs are optimistic about Chime’s future and its ability to fend off global competition. “Chime spent hundreds of millions on marketing to build brand equity,” says Logan Allin, founder of Fin Capital, which gained a stake in Chime when the startup acquired Fin portfolio company Salt Labs in 2024. “Revolut entering the US—which they tried to do and failed—is not a real risk.”

The consumer fintech exit landscape has remained muted. While some credit and banking startups are managing to raise capital, there were only 12 exits in the first quarter, generating $1.6 billion in value. In 2021, 119 deals generated $193.4 billion in exit value, according to PitchBook’s latest Retail Fintech VC Trends report. “It will really impact how we frame valuations,” says Bain Capital Ventures principal Alysaa Co. “I think it is the North Star for right now.”

Klarna, the buy now/pay later giant that planned to go public in the United States earlier in 2025, could be the next consumer fintech IPO.