San Francisco-based challenger bank Chime Financial announced that it has secured a funding of US$750 million, pushing its valuation to US$25 billion ahead of a planned initial public offering (IPO) early next year.

The funding round was led by new investor Sequoia Capital Global Equities with participation from SoftBank Group Corp.’s Vision Fund 2, General Atlantic, Tiger Global Management LLC and Dragoneer Investment Group LLC.

The funds will be used to push ahead with its IPO plans for early 2022.

Founded in 2012, Chime provides checking and savings accounts and introductory credit cards to consumers through its app.

Prior to this, Chime had secured US$485 million in a Series F fundraise where the neobank was worth close to 900% more in 18 months for a US$1.5 billion valuation.

While Chime has experienced a meteoric rise since its inception, Ron Shevlin, the author of the Fintech Snark Tank on Forbes, raised the question whether the challenger bank has earned the lofty valuation.

“In my book, Chime simply isn’t a $25 billion company. But what a US$25 billion valuation could do for them is put them in a position to make some acquisitions that could jumpstart the company’s path to earning that valuation,”

said Ron Shevlin.

Featured image: Chris Britt, CEO and Co-Founder of Chime from Medium