Chime Acquires Salt Labs, Launches Chime Enterprise – Finovate

• Chime plans to acquire Salt Labs, an employee savings and rewards program to help companies motivate their workforces.
• Along with the acquisition, Chime is launching Chime Enterprise, a new business unit that will help Chime grow users via the employer channel.
• Salt Labs Founder and CEO Jason Lee will lead Chime Enterprise.

Challenger bank Chime made an acquisition today that will help it expand into the enterprise arena. The San Francisco-based digital bank announced today that it has acquired Salt Labs, an employee savings and rewards program to help companies motivate their workforces.

Salt was founded in 2022 to offer enterprises a new way to incentivize their hourly employees. The company helps mitigate turnover while engaging employees by allowing workers to earn one “Salt Asset” for each hour they work. If they stay with the company for long enough, employees can exchange accumulated Salt Assets for a special purchase, college fund distribution, or an investment.

Until now, Chime has strictly offered services directly to end consumers. With the acquisition of Salt, however, Chime will make a move to acquire new users through their employers. Salt Founder and CEO and Founder of DailyPay Jason Lee will lead Chime’s new business unit, Chime Enterprise, to help Chime grow its client base via the employer channel.

“This is a one-of-a-kind opportunity for Chime to acquire an innovative employee rewards company that has key employer relationships, and a founding team that has created some of the most disruptive technology in the enterprise earned wage access space,” said Chime COO Mark Troughton. “Through this acquisition, we will aim to partner directly with employers to reach millions of consumers and introduce them to the Chime platform. We look forward to leveraging Salt Labs’ existing relationships with employers and building upon the Chime MyPay earned wage access platform to further address the needs of everyday people.”

Chime is well known in fintech for offering tools and services that cater to its low-to-middle income target market. In addition to its earned wage access tool that allows users to receive their paycheck up to two days earlier when they set up direct deposit, Chime also offers a credit-building tool and a feature that will spot users up to $200 to avoid account overdrafts.

Chime did not publicly disclose the acquisition amount. However, some sources report that the deal, which is expected to be finalized later this week, could close for as much as $173 million after Chime provides an up-front payment of $14 million.

“We’ve always believed that financial progress begins with employment and should be centered around the primary financial account,” said Lee. “We are thrilled to be part of this next stage of growth at Chime and to build Chime Enterprise alongside the incredible team at Chime.”

Photo by Jason Tuinstra on Unsplash

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