Founded in 2013 by dynamic CEO Chris Britt , Chime is headquartered in San Francisco and was valued at US $ 14.5bn following a $ 485mn funding round in Q3 of 2020 .

Chime specialises in retail banking and serves an estimated 12 million customers , making it the most valuable retail-serving fintech startup in the US .

In a surprise move , Britt publicly launched Chime publicly in 2014 on the highly popular Dr Phil talk show . The host reportedly gifted his guests a Chime card , each loaded up with $ 5,000 . The bank saw a 50 % growth expansion during the pandemic as its large customer base became much more reliant on digital channels .

One of the longest established digital banks , Moscow-based Tinkoff was founded in 2006 by Oleg Tinkov – who then went on to launch the fintech by reportedly investing $ 70mn of his own money in the project .

It ’ s currently led by CEO Oliver Hughes and has 13 million customers . Data from its London Stock Exchange ( LSE ) listing places Tinkoff with a valuation of US $ 17bn . Indeed , despite the challenges of the past few months , Tinkoff ’ s total assets have been growing year-on-year since 2018 . It recently reported total assets worth RUS1.318bn – a figure that is expanding by 50 % a year .

132 November 2022