On June 11, 2025, Chime Financial, Inc. officially announced its highly anticipated IPO, pricing 32 million shares of its Class A common stock at $27.00 per share.
Of the shares offered, 25.9 million were issued by Chime, raising nearly $700 million in fresh capital. An additional 6.1 million shares were sold by existing stockholders, who collectively secured approximately $165 million. Chime did not receive proceeds from these secondary sales.
Chime Financial IPO shares began trading a day earlier, on June 12, 2025, on the Nasdaq Global Select Market under the ticker CHYM. The debut was nothing short of explosive – the stock opened at $43.00 and closed the day at $37.11, delivering a 37% surge above the IPO price.
To support further investor demand, Chime granted underwriters a 30-day option to purchase up to 4.8 million additional shares. With an offering that totaled around $864 million, Chime’s fully diluted valuation was pegged at $11.6 billion.
Key Takeaways
- Chime announced its IPO on June 11, 2025, at $27 per share. The share price was above the projected range of $24 to 26. The company sold 25.9 million new shares while existing investors sold about 6.1 million. The sale brings in $864 million in total proceeds.
- With its initial pricing, Chime’s fully diluted valuation came in around $11.6 billion, a drop of more than 40% from its peak private valuation of $25 billion in 2021.
- On its first trading day (June 12), CHYM opened at $43, a roughly 59-60% jump from the IPO price. It closed somewhat lower later in the day but remained well above the offer price.
- The strong IPO reflects revived interest in fintech listings after recent successes like Circle and eToro. However, Chime’s business model carries risks: it remains unprofitable, relies heavily on interchange fees, and could be affected by regulatory changes or cost pressure.
Chime Financial IPO Filed and Stage Set for Market Debut
On May 13, 2025, Chime Financial took the first definite step toward its long-anticipated public debut by filing a registration statement on Form S-1 with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission. In that filing, the San Francisco–based fintech disclosed that its revenue rose to $1.67 billion in the fiscal year ended 2024, up from $1.28 billion the year before, and confirmed that it would trade under the ticker “CHYM” on the Nasdaq Global Select Market. Morgan Stanley, Goldman Sachs, and J.P. Morgan were named as lead underwriters for the offering.
Founded in 2012 by Chris Britt and Ryan King, Chime has built a mobile-first banking platform that partners with chartered banks to provide fee-free checking accounts, high-yield savings, early direct deposit access, and interest-free overdraft protection through its SpotMe feature. By the end of Q1 2025, Chime served roughly 8.6 million active members, each generating an average of $251 in revenue and averaging 54-55 transactions per month, about 75% of which were purchase transactions on Chime-branded cards. The users also launch the app roughly four to five times a day.
Attracting that many customers comes at a steep cost. Between 2022 and 2024, Chime invested about $1.4 billion in marketing. Once members set up direct deposit, retention exceeds 90%.
Chime’s revenue mix is heavily weighted toward interchange fees – the small charges merchants pay whenever a Chime debit or credit card is swiped, which make up roughly 72% of its top line. That stands in contrast to legacy banks, which rely more on overdraft penalties and minimum-balance fees. Many analysts noted that the model’s simplicity is almost surprising given its scale.
The broader U.S. IPO market had been largely dormant due to higher interest rates, inflationary pressures, and the turmoil caused by tariff threats earlier in the year. But as trade negotiations began to progress and markets stabilized, institutional investors started to circle back to high-growth technology and fintech names. A successful Chime IPO was seen as a bellwether that could reopen the IPO window for other companies eager to go public.
In the S-1 filing itself, Chime highlighted its private funding history, noting that it had raised $2.65 billion from investors such as SoftBank Investment Advisers, General Atlantic, and Tiger Global Management. That last private round in August 2021 had valued the company at $25 billion. Its investor roster includes Yuri Milner’s DST Global alongside prominent firms such as General Atlantic and ICONIQ. According to PitchBook, it has attracted $2.65 billion in private funding since its founding.
Beyond the financial metrics, the filing emphasized Chime’s mission to serve everyday consumers who often face punitive banking fees. It also laid out the legal and structural framework, reiterating that Chime is a financial technology company, not a bank, and that deposits are FDIC-insured through partner banks.
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By June 2, Chime began its IPO roadshow, detailing the offering to potential investors. The company planned to sell 32 million shares of Class A common stock – 25.9 million new shares issued by Chime and 6.1 million held by existing shareholders – and granted underwriters a 30-day option to purchase up to an additional 4.8 million shares. The price range was set between $24.00 and $26.00 per share, with the same lead underwriters joined by additional bookrunners and co-managers to support the deal.
Targeting a fully diluted valuation of up to $11.2 billion, Chime positioned its IPO as both a fundraiser for continued growth and a way for early backers to realize some gains. Analysts noted that pricing at the lower end of private-market valuations could help ensure strong demand in a still-cautious environment.
When final pricing was set on June 11, Chime fixed the offering at $27.00 per share, above the marketed range, raising $864 million in total. Of that amount, Chime received nearly $700 million in primary proceeds, while selling shareholders realized roughly $165 million. This pricing implied an $11.6 billion valuation on a fully diluted basis, making it one of the largest U.S. fintech IPOs in recent memory.
The decision to price at $27 reflected Chime’s improving financials: after a $203 million loss in 2023, the company narrowed its net loss to $25 million in 2024 and achieved profitability in Q1 2025. That performance, coupled with a 31% year-over-year revenue increase, helped justify the valuation and tempered concerns about overheated fintech valuations.
At market open on June 12, Chime shares debuted under the ticker ‘CHYM.’ The stock leapt to $43.00 – 59% above the IPO price before closing at $37.11, and more recently trading at around $35 at the time of writing. It marked a high-profile success for a sector that had struggled to go public in 2024 and early 2025.
That debut wasn’t just a winner for Chime; it continued the winning streak for the U.S. IPO market. With Chime’s strong performance, the Renaissance IPO Index and other measures of new-issue activity edged closer to matching the gains of established benchmarks, signaling renewed confidence among issuers and investors. Companies such as Klarna, Gemini, and Cerebras – long in the wings – began to accelerate their listing plans.
In interviews around the IPO, CEO Chris Britt emphasized that despite Chime’s rapid growth, it still served fewer than 5% of the roughly 200 million Americans earning $100,000 or less per year. He maintained that with much of its core market yet to adopt fee-free banking, Chime had “just scratched the surface” of its opportunity.
The IPO also unlocked liquidity for employees and early investors, many of whom had waited years for a public market exit. At the same time, Chime assumed the heightened responsibilities of a public company – regular financial reporting, regulatory compliance, and increased scrutiny from analysts and shareholders.
In the wake of the 2021 IPO surge, rising borrowing costs and recessionary jitters have weighed on both valuations and appetite for new share offerings, leading many private companies to put their public‐listing plans on hold. Still, a few fast‐growing outfits are tentatively dipping back in.
Space‐technology upstart Voyager (VOYG.N) saw its shares more than double on their Wednesday debut, and stablecoin issuer Circle (CRCL.N), which went public last week, has already seen its stock quadruple above its initial price. Yet analysts urge restraint, warning that lingering uncertainties around trade talks under the Trump administration could temper any broader revival. On the heels of these showings, firms such as crypto exchange Gemini, buy-now-pay-later provider Klarna, AI-chip designer Cerebras, and medical-supplies vendor Medline remain the most watched prospects in the current IPO pipeline.
About Chime
Chime Financial, Inc. is a San Francisco–based fintech pioneer founded in 2012 by Chris Britt and Ryan King. Partnering with The Bancorp Bank and Stride Bank to hold member deposits, Chime delivers fee-free mobile banking, checking, and savings accounts, high-yield savings, peer-to-peer transfers, early paycheck access, a secured credit card, and its SpotMe™ overdraft feature – without monthly charges, minimum balances, or traditional overdraft fees. Built on a member-first ethos, Chime leverages interchange revenue instead of punitive fees, earning its spot as one of America’s most loved and most downloaded banking apps.
Since launching its service on April 15, 2014, Chime has exploded in scale: as of June 2025, it serves roughly 8.6 million active users and processes over $8 billion in transactions every month, generating $1.3 billion in revenue in 2023 while markedly reducing its losses. Backed by top-tier investors – including Sequoia Capital, DST Global, General Atlantic, and Coatue – Chime raised over $2.3 billion in private funding, peaking at a $25 billion valuation in 2021. On June 12, 2025, Chime made its public market debut on Nasdaq (ticker CHYM), raising $864 million at an $11.6 billion valuation, cementing its asset-light, payments-driven model as a formidable challenge to traditional banks
Conclusion
Chime’s IPO marks a key moment for both the company and the broader fintech sector. After years of rapid user growth, significant private funding, and strategic positioning as a low-fee alternative to traditional banks, Chime entered the public market with strong investor support and solid financial momentum. The successful debut, priced above range and followed by a strong opening day performance, reflects renewed institutional interest in high-growth fintech firms despite a still-cautious IPO environment.
While Chime faces questions about long-term profitability and regulatory exposure tied to its interchange-heavy model, its scale, brand recognition, and early 2025 profitability provide a base for continued expansion. The IPO also serves as a signal to other private fintechs watching for signs of investor readiness. For now, Chime’s entry into public markets stands as one of the few high-profile tech offerings in 2025 to clear expectations – and possibly raise the bar for what’s next.
