For investors, late-stage fintech startups are a lucrative bet

Hello and welcome back to our regular morning look at private companies, public markets and the gray space in between.

Over the past three months, a number of financial events have occurred in the fintech and finservices world that have caught our eye. Between two rounds at $500 million and two exits in the billions of dollars, financial technology and services startups have been on fire.

Today I’d like to rewind and go over the four largest events from the past three months in fintech and finservices (total value: $13.4 billion) and pull in data on other rounds that have happened recently. This will help us get a handle on what’s going on in the two heated startup sectors.

Recall that our last look into fintech’s venture activity wrapped up its Q4 2019 results. Today, thanks to the punishing news cycle that the sector has kept up over the last few weeks, we’re going a bit further. Into the breach!

Four events

We have two rounds ($500 million rounds for Revolut and Chime) and two sales (exits for Plaid and Credit Karma) to wrap up today. Here’s what each of those deals might tell us about the current market for money-focused startups and investment, starting with our two rounds and followed by our two exits:

• Chime raises $500 million, boosting its valuation from $1.5 billion (March 2019) to $5.8 billion (December 2019). Chime’s round demonstrated that the neobanking boom, at least in terms venture interest, is far from over. The America-focused financial services company grew its accounts figure to 6.5 million, giving it a valuation of a little under $1,000 per account; how much revenue and margin it can extract from its existing accounts is almost a red herring given its current pace of growth. But even with the growth caveat, investors have bet big that its long-term revenues will help support a valuation of over $10 billion in time. (The company’s most recent investors expect material return on their funds.) This implies confidence in the long-term economics of neobanking and general bullishness on the company’s category — so the existing 6.5 million accounts better churn out good chunks of top line.
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