By Arjuna Costa
My journey toward reshaping financial systems began in 1998 while financing farmers in Zimbabwe and Uganda. Community after community revealed the same pattern: ambition and initiative, but no access to the basic tools that enable growth. Coming from Wall Street, where I handled billion-dollar transactions, the failure of the system at its most basic level left a deep impression.
A decade later, I sat in bank branches with a stopwatch, timing transactions to understand why institutions served only the well-off. The math was clear: it cost too much to profitably handle small accounts. At the same time, Kenya’s M-Pesa was transforming corner shops into banking agents, cutting the cost of serving the underserved by up to 85%.
Technology was beginning to rewrite the economics of banking. Early fintech apps were fragmented — payments, credit, micro-insurance — but they showed the potential.
By 2014, a tipping point arrived: Smartphone adoption, affordable data and fintech infrastructure made it possible for digital-only platforms to deliver full banking at scale. As an investor at Omidyar Network, I led our first neobank bet in Europe, followed by early investments in Chime in the U.S., Neon in Brazil, Albo in Mexico and FairMoney in Nigeria.
Each market presented unique challenges, and each investment built on the lessons of the last.
Validation + reflection
Almost a decade later, Chime debuted on the Nasdaq in June 2025. Its IPO was a milestone for the company, but also a broader signal: Building consumer-first financial institutions is not only viable but necessary.
Chime’s story validated a new model for financial services — lean, customer-centric and profitable by improving outcomes. It also gave us an opportunity to reflect on what we’ve learned from scaling neobanks globally.
What we learned
- Focus on customer experience: Success came from solving real pain points with simplicity and better outcomes. Regulatory structure and technology ownership mattered, but speed to market and acquisition efficiency were paramount.
- Align monetization with customer success: When we invested in Chime in 2017, it wasn’t a regulated bank — it partnered with one. By eliminating overdraft fees and minimum balances and instead earning revenue from transactions, it aligned its growth with customer well-being. That model resonated. Chime’s features forced incumbents to adapt, cutting U.S. overdraft fees from $12 billion in 2019 to under $6 billion in 2024. By IPO, Chime had 8.6 million users, $1.67 billion in revenue, and a $13.5 billion market cap.
- In emerging markets, lending is foundational: In Brazil, Neon scaled by layering credit on top of digital accounts, now serving 7.7 million active users and reaching unicorn status. In Mexico, Albo expanded from accounts into lending and SMB services. Nigeria’s FairMoney flipped the sequence — starting with short-term loans before adding accounts. Today it serves more than 2 million users and generates $100 million-plus in annual revenue.
The lesson: Lending deepens engagement and drives scale, but it cannot be the end goal. The strongest platforms build trust by helping customers protect money, manage liquidity and grow resiliency.
Why it matters
Since our earliest neobank investments, we’ve believed innovative fintech can drive systemic change. Chime’s IPO demonstrates that financial institutions can succeed at scale while aligning business success with customer progress.
When we first met Chime, the team framed financial health in practical terms: fewer fees, faster access to wages, better tools. Today, that ethos is written plainly on Page 1 of its S-1: financial progress.
That conviction guides our global work. Across Brazil, India, Mexico, Nigeria and beyond, we’ve backed founders building products that help people save, borrow, earn and grow. The opportunity is vast — from infrastructure to insurance, credit to savings. Or, as we often say at Flourish: all of it.
Arjuna Costa is a co-founder and managing partner of Flourish Ventures, an early-stage global venture capital firm that invests in mission-driven entrepreneurs and industry influencers working toward a fair financial system. With a primary focus on venture investing across emerging markets in Asia, Africa and Latin America, Costa is driven by a deep compassion for vulnerable populations across the globe. He partners with entrepreneurs using innovative technologies to enhance their customers’ financial well-being.
Related reading:
Illustration: Dom Guzman
Stay up to date with recent funding rounds, acquisitions, and more with the
Crunchbase Daily.
