American firm Chime reported on Friday that it had raised $750 million in its latest round of funding. Sequoia Capital Global Equities led the round of funding. Other investors included SoftBank's Vision Fund 2, Tiger Global, and Dragoneer Investment Group.
After this latest round, Chime has been valued at a significant $25 billion. The latest round of funding could be in preparation for Chime's upcoming listing on the stock exchange in the United States.
See also: Post COVID-19: The Rise or Decline of Fintech?
What does Chime do?
Chime was founded in 2012 by Chris Britt and Ryan King. Both are former employees at Visa. The company provides certain mobile banking services without a fee via its smartphone app. They also offer their own debit and credit card. When a customer uses a Chime debit or credit card, Chime earns a fee from payment processors like Visa. Chime also has a feature called 'Spot Me' that users can use to avail an overdraft facility without being charged a fee. The company partners with local brick-and-mortar banks in order to provide these banking services.
A Booming Global Fintech Sector
There has been an upward trend in the use of fintech services by everyday consumers over the past decade. However, the Covid-19 pandemic accelerated the use and adoption of fintech solutions as consumers became more comfortable with digital channels and platforms. In fact, fintech companies around the world are seeing an unprecedented boom. According to a KPMG report, fintech companies in India alone have drawn investments of $2 billion in 2021 so far. Some notable winners of this boom are listed below:
1. FTX Trading:
The company owns and operates the platform FTX.com that acts as a cryptocurrency exchange. The company closed its Series B round of funding by raising $900 million in investments. The company is currently valued at $18 billion.
2. Fireblocks:
This company is working with blockchain technology as well but is not limited to the cryptocurrency space. Fireblocks is aiming to create a transparent, efficient, and fraud-free financial system for all blockchain assets. They concluded their series D round of funding with $310 million raised.
3. Square and Afterpay:
The buy now pay later (BNPL) segment of fintech has seen some strong growth over the past few years. One of the biggest deals in the segment came earlier this month when Square announced it would be acquiring Australian BNPL company Afterpay for $29 billion.
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