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Varo Bank
Fintech
Varo Bank is a San Francisco-based digital bank, notable for being the first U.S. consumer fintech company to receive its own national bank charter, offering mobile banking, savings, and credit-building products.
$499M
-$0.17
8.48%
30 days ago
$1.96
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Varo Bank was founded in 2015 by Colin Walsh, entering the U.S. consumer neobank market alongside competitors such as Chime and Current, but pursuing a distinctive regulatory strategy relative to most fintech competitors, which typically operate by partnering with a separately chartered bank to hold customer deposits rather than obtaining their own banking charter directly: Varo pursued and, in 2020, received approval for its own national bank charter from the U.S. Office of the Comptroller of the Currency, becoming what the OCC recognized as the first U.S. consumer fintech company to achieve this milestone, a lengthy and demanding regulatory process that gave Varo more direct control over its banking operations and reduced its dependence on a third-party chartered bank partner, a structural arrangement most competing neobanks continue to rely on. Varo's mobile banking app provides typical digital banking features including checking and savings accounts, early access to direct deposit paychecks before their scheduled pay date, and various budgeting and savings tools, alongside a secured credit-building product designed to help customers with limited or damaged credit history establish or rebuild credit through responsible, monitored credit usage. The company has particularly emphasized serving financially underserved consumers, including those who have been declined by or have had difficult experiences with traditional banks, positioning its combination of accessible banking products and credit-building tools as helping these customers build a stronger financial foundation over time rather than only providing basic transactional banking services without further financial health support. Varo's decision to pursue its own bank charter, while providing greater long-term operational control and independence from third-party bank partnership arrangements, also required the company to build and maintain the more extensive regulatory compliance infrastructure that comes with being a directly regulated, chartered bank rather than only a technology company partnering with a separately chartered bank, an important strategic tradeoff relative to the faster, less regulatory-intensive path many competing neobanks have taken by remaining fintech companies partnering with existing chartered banks rather than becoming banks themselves. The company has raised substantial venture funding from investors including Warburg Pincus, The Rise Fund, and Gallatin Point Capital, reaching unicorn status.
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