NerdWallet is an American

personal finance Personal finance is the financial management which an individual or a family unit performs to budget, save, and spend monetary resources over time, taking into account various financial risks and future life events. When planning personal fi ...

company A company, abbreviated as co., is a Legal personality, legal entity representing an association of people, whether Natural person, natural, Legal person, legal or a mixture of both, with a specific objective. Company members share a common p ...

, founded in 2009 by Tim Chen and Jacob Gibson. It has a

website A website (also written as a web site) is a collection of web pages and related content that is identified by a common domain name and published on at least one web server. Examples of notable websites are Google Search, Google, Facebook, Amaz ...

and app that earns money by promoting financial products to its users.

History

NerdWallet was founded in August 2009 by Tim Chen and Jacob Gibson, with an initial capital investment of $800. Its first product was a

web application A web application (or web app) is application software that is accessed using a web browser. Web applications are delivered on the World Wide Web to users with an active network connection. History In earlier computing models like client-serve ...

that provided comparative information about

credit cards A credit card is a payment card issued to users (cardholders) to enable the cardholder to pay a merchant for goods and services based on the cardholder's accrued debt (i.e., promise to the card issuer to pay them for the amounts plus the o ...

. Subsequently, it generated large quantities of content to help boost its search engine results. Website traffic grew quickly in 2010 and, by March 2014, the website had up to 30 million users. The following year, it raised $64 million in its first round of funding, at an estimated valuation of $500 million. In 2016, the company acquired the retirement planning firm AboutLife, and was valued at $520 million. In 2017, company growth slowed, resulting in the layoff of 11 percent of its employees. In August 2020, the company expanded its footprint into the UK by acquiring Know Your Money, a Norwich-based startup that provides a similar range of comparison and information tools geared at people who live in the UK In November 2020, NerdWallet acquired small business loan marketplace, Fundera. In 2021, NerdWallet partnered with Inclusiv, a nonprofit network of community development credit unions, and committed to move millions of dollars to local credit unions to advance financial equity. In November 2021, the company went public on the

Nasdaq stock exchange The Nasdaq Stock Market () (National Association of Securities Dealers Automated Quotations Stock Market) is an American stock exchange based in New York City. It is the most active stock trading venue in the US by volume, and ranked second ...

. In July 2022, NerdWallet acquired On the Barrelhead, a consumer debt

robo-advisor Robo-advisors or robo-advisers are a class of financial adviser that provide financial advice and investment management online with moderate to minimal human intervention. They provide digital financial advice based on mathematical rules or algorith ...

platform, for $120 million.

Products and services

The company's goal is to provide information that educates users in making financial decisions. They do so by providing both reviews and comparison of different financial products, including

, banking, investing,

loans In finance, a loan is the lending of money by one or more individuals, organizations, or other entities to other individuals, organizations, etc. The recipient (i.e., the borrower) incurs a debt and is usually liable to pay interest on that de ...

and

insurance Insurance is a means of protection from financial loss in which, in exchange for a fee, a party agrees to compensate another party in the event of a certain loss, damage, or injury. It is a form of risk management, primarily used to hedge ...

. Its web site is directed primarily towards

Millennials Millennials, also known as Generation Y or Gen Y, are the Western demographic cohort following Generation X and preceding Generation Z. Researchers and popular media use the early 1980s as starting birth years and the mid-1990s to early 2000 ...

and provides information on credit card selection and benefits, college loans, banking, mortgage loans, stock trading and insurance policies. By May 2015, the company developed business relationships with eight banks and a dozen insurance companies. In exchange for new customers, affiliated banks pay NerdWallet a success fee. Co-founder Chen reported that the company became profitable by virtue of the fees it earned through matching users with financial products and services.

Administration

Tim Chen is the CEO and co-founder of NerdWallet and board member at the

National Foundation for Credit Counseling The National Foundation for Credit Counseling (NFCC), founded in 1951, is the largest and longest-serving nonprofit financial counseling organization in the United States. NFCC member agencies provide access to financial counseling services for ...

. The company's "transparent" and "self-critical" management style was reset in 2013, when Chen fired 20% of the workforce and restructured company management into a flatter "matrix" structure. In March 2014, former

LinkedIn LinkedIn () is an American business and employment-oriented online service that operates via websites and mobile apps. Launched on May 5, 2003, the platform is primarily used for professional networking and career development, and allows job se ...

VP Dan Yoo replaced co-founder Gibson as chief operating officer and Flo Thinh joined as VP of Talent. By 2015, the company had 200 employees and added

Vikram Pandit Vikram Shankar Pandit (born 14 January 1957) is an Indian-American banker and investor who was the chief executive officer of Citigroup from December 2007 to 16 October 2012 and is the current chairman and chief executive officer of The Oroge ...

and

James D. Robinson III James Dixon Robinson III (born 19 November 1935) is an American businessman best known for his position as the chief executive officer of American Express Co. from 1977 until his retirement in 1993. Education Robinson attended Woodberry Forest ...

to its board of advisors. In 2020, former

eBay eBay Inc. ( ) is an American multinational e-commerce company based in San Jose, California, that facilitates consumer-to-consumer and business-to-consumer sales through its website. eBay was founded by Pierre Omidyar in 1995 and became a ...

executive Lauren St. Clair joined NerdWallet as CFO. The company added Lynne Laube and Jennifer Ceran to its board of directors.

References

External links

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Play Store
{{authority control 2009 establishments in California American companies established in 2009 Companies based in San Francisco Financial services companies based in California Finance websites Financial services companies established in 2009 Online financial services companies of the United States Financial technology companies Personal finance education 2021 initial public offerings Companies listed on the Nasdaq

History

Products and services

Administration

See also

References

External links