resonance investment, Announce on Monday (July 20), allowing members to buy stocks and exchange-traded funds in the same app they use for things like spending and saving.
“About 40% of Americans report not owning any stocks, missing out on one of the most reliable ways to build wealth over time,” the company said in a press release. “For many, getting started is intimidating, time-consuming, or simply easy to put off.”
Chime cites an internal survey in which members noted similar barriers. They don’t have time to learn the market, have more pressing needs for their money, and worry about the cost of consulting a specialist. Chime Invest lets members get started with as little as $1, with portfolios managed by experts for users without time or experience, the company said.
“The hardest part of investing is often getting started and sticking with it,” Chime co-founder and CEO Chris Bretthe said in the ad. “Millions of people already trust Chime with their money every day. By bringing investing to the app they already know and love, we’re making it easier to turn saving into investing and investing in long-term wealth.”
Writing about Chime’s latest earnings report in May, PYMNTS noted that the results revealed that while “the fintech landscape is undoubtedly mature these days,” that doesn’t mean that “companies can’t… You still achieve size without giving up growthOr the size and growth are completely risk-free.
At the time, Chime had just posted its first quarter of GAAP profitability as a public company, and saw revenue growth of 25% year-over-year, beating guidance and analyst estimates.
“The toughest question for fintech companies more broadly remains whether they can maintain resilience and consumer trust once they begin to resemble the institutions they originally set out to disrupt,” the report added.
Brett assured investors that Financial technology The platform “has reached 10.2 million active members, with more Americans opening bank accounts with Chime than any other financial institution,” putting the company more than 50% ahead of its closest competitor.
Chime’s profitable first quarter could signal that competitive advantage in the mature fintech space may “look less like renegade apps and more like fully integrated financial institutions built on modern infrastructure,” PYMNTS added.
