Do we know the user base and valuation of the big US fintechs? I’m thinking Chime, Varo etc?
Also, anyone know how much Simple was acquired for and their user numbers at the time?
Chime was $25bn last year, Venmo $38bn, Varo is raising at the moment at a valuation $1.8bn which is a 30% down round
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The interesting one is how much Cash app would be if you took it out of Block’s total valuation
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Til that Square is now Block.
It was bought fairly early on into the fintech era. Before Monzo was ever conceived, so way back then I imagine valuations would be much smaller.
I think it was 2013 or 2014 when BBVA bought them. Don’t remember how much for ($117 million from a quick google), but I think they had about 50,000 100,000 customers at the time.
Customer numbers were never publicly reported following that, but I think estimates had them in the millions when it was shut down.
BBVA struck gold, and they didn’t capitalise on it, which paved the way for chime to just breeze on past them on sheer brand recognition.
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Such a waste. I thought that they might at least try and flog off the IP (I thought that Monzo might spend a bit on it) but last I heard the new owners have let the trademarks on things like Safe to Spend expire.
(A bit of an aside, but I think there are US Monzonauts who are Simple alum. I’d love an AMA, @AlanDoe!)
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