From Series B to IPO: The Early Bet on Chime, America’s Most Loved Digital Bank
How Cathay Innovation’s global VC perspective led to conviction in Chime before Silicon Valley
On June 12th, San Francisco-based Chime (NASDAQ: CHYM) officially made its public debut.
This is big news for Chime, its founders Chris Britt and Ryan King, and the team whose tireless efforts over 13 years have turned an ambitious startup into one of the most prominent publicly traded neobanks. It’s also big news for early investors, like us at Cathay Innovation. We took an early bet on Chime, leading its $17M Series B in 2017 — a time when most Silicon Valley VCs were not convinced in the model.
Today, we’re reflecting on the journey — the global perspective and Chime’s commitment to people that gave us conviction in what became the fastest-growing digital bank in the world.
THE UNDERDOGS
“Not only were we looking to help the underdogs, we were underdogs ourselves.” – Chime Founders Chris Britt & Ryan King
The traditional banking system simply isn’t built for most Americans. Chime came on the scene in 2012 offering quality no-fee mobile banking to underserved everyday Americans. The mission was to provide a more equitable banking experience that helps avoid fees, manage income gaps and unexpected costs, build credit and save for important life events. And by taking a digital and mobile-first approach, it delivers banking services without physical branches, allowing for scale, agility and at a fraction of operational costs compared to traditional banks.
Chime’s value resonates deeply with a lot of Americans — but that wasn’t always the case with investors. As Chris and Ryan note, Chime wasn’t solving a problem relatable to affluent circles or the Silicon Valley elite. And many investors were skeptical a neobank could upend one of the world’s oldest industries.
We can relate to the underdog mindset. We were introduced to Chime back in 2017 from seed investor Homebrew (major thanks to Satya Patel!), leading to one of our first US investments out of Fund I (2015 vintage). While today our San Francisco office counts over 10 team members — back then, we were a newcomer to Silicon Valley with a headcount of two (myself, Co-founder Denis Barrier & now Partner Simon Wu).
We entered the US with a core question: What new value could our global model bring to this highly competitive market? We learned where prominent Silicon Valley firms were focused — and more importantly, where they were NOT. One of our initial goals was to back underserved or “non-obvious” areas that were gaining traction abroad — areas where we could compete and add value thanks to our global footprint and corporate ecosystem that gave us early visibility and insight. Neobanks stood out.
THE GLOBAL LENS
Cathay Innovation is a global VC firm, headquartered out of Paris with local offices across Europe, the US, Asia and Latam.
We’d seen challenger banks emerge worldwide — offering mobile-first, user-centric alternatives to outdated financial systems and traditional banking. The big question for neobanks (and any consumer fintech) was around customer acquisition and monetization: Could a purely digital bank model win the TRUST of customers?
In Europe, Monzo, N26 and Revolut were gaining early traction by building sleek independent digital platforms with banking licenses. The most innovative established banks were also taking note. BNP Paribas, a leader in banking and financial services in Europe and a long-time investor and strategic partner of Cathay Innovation through BNP Paribas Cardif, launched Hello bank! In 2013 and acquired neobank Nickel in 2017.
In Latin America, Nubank was leading the charge — targeting the underbanked and layering financial services on top of a credit-first model. In China, tech players were “leapfrogging” legacy systems with super-app-embedded neobanks like WeBank (Tencent / WeChat) and MYbank (Alibaba / Alipay).
Different markets, different models, same conclusion: the tech, customers and world were all ready for new ways to bank.
THE CONVICTION
Across the 5 leading neobank models, we found one overarching aspect to be true: the most successful are those that are the most impactful to its customers, especially the underserved. There are several core factors that continuously reinforced our conviction in Chime:
- The Model: Chime’s interchange-led approach in the uniquely favorable US market — earning meaningful revenue from debit card usage instead of fees, aligning its growth directly with customer benefit.
- The Tech: By building its tech stack in-house, Chime avoided third-party constraints, enabling faster development, cost control, and eventually AI-driven innovation that improves the customer experience. This helped achieve what many fintechs couldn’t: profitable, sustainable user acquisition with an innovative value proposition.
- The Team: Chris and Ryan brought deep industry and product expertise — deeply understanding the problem, building strong early partnerships and cultivating a culture rooted in user advocacy.
Still, what was most impressive was Chime’s ability to earn strong user trust early on — 66 NPS and 50% organic growth at the time of investment. In other words: The people who used it, loved it.
We’re proud to have backed Chime, not just financially, but as a global partner offering perspective from fast-evolving fintech markets. Our close industry relationships within BNP Paribas also played a key role to grow our confidence — enabling meaningful discussions with their leadership (including Renaud Dumora, Stanislas Chevalet and Matthieu Soulé) on Chime’s scalability, legal framework and long-term potential.
While most of Silicon Valley passed on the opportunity at the time, these conversations gave us conviction to move forward with confidence. Naturally, we later helped facilitate this strategic connection further, leading to BNP Paribas’ first US corporate venture arm investment in Chime’s Series C — a standout success.
THE IMPACT
While the path to IPO was far from linear, Chime’s unwavering commitment (and alignment) to people ultimately fueled its success. We witnessed Chime harness its underdog mindset into relentless innovation to better serve the everyday American which to us, says: we’re building something that matters.
A SNAPSHOT OF THE EVOLUTION:
- 2012: Launched to bring mobile, fee-free banking to everyday Americans
- 2017–2018: Get Paid Early — early access to direct deposit (major inflection point)
- 2019: SpotMe® — fee-free overdraft protection
- 2020: Credit Builder Card — build credit with no interest or fees
- 2020: COVID-19 Response — early access to stimulus
- 2024: MyPay™ — on-demand earned wage access
But its most significant legacy? Influence.
By 2022, major banks like Capital One, Bank of America, Wells Fargo and JPMorgan Chase began eliminating or reducing overdraft and NSF fees, collectively saving consumers billions. Chime didn’t just build a better bank — it helped shift the standards of an entire industry.
PARTING THOUGHTS
Since our investment in Chime, Cathay Innovation has backed fintech leaders transforming how financial services is delivered on nearly every continent — from FinAccel (largest Fintech in SEA), Descartes Underwriting (leader in paramatric insurance, France) and Sidecar Health (disruptive next-gen health insurance, US) to Kueski (#1 BNPL player in Mexico), PalmPay (#1 credit grantor by phone, Nigeria), recently Nasdaq listed Yuanbao (leading digital health insurance broker, China), Alma (the BNPL leader in France) and far more.
We invested in Chime because we believed it was an idea that mattered: helping millions of Americans access a fairer financial system, especially in times of economic pressure like inflation or job insecurity. Going public gives Chime the opportunity to expand its impact even further. The IPO isn’t the finish line. It’s the beginning of a larger journey: making financial peace of mind a reality for all and redefining what banking can be in America.
Written by: Denis Barrier & Jaclyn Hartnett
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