Private Markets, Angel and Secondary Investing, Sacra

Sacra

Private Markets, Angel and Secondary Investing

Bringing transparency to private markets so investors, founders, and employees can build on conviction. Sacra delivers deeply researched insights on the private companies shaping tomorrow's markets. By surfacing the data, context, and operator perspective that are missing from private markets today, we help secondary buyers and sellers price equity accurately and unlock liquidity for the people building these businesses.

Private Capital Markets

<ul><li>Sacra estimates that Stripe hit $6.8B in revenue in 2025, up 33% year-over-year from $5.1B in 2024, with $1.2B in EBITDA.</li><li>Stripe reported total payment volume of $1.9T in 2025, up 34% year-over-year from $1.4T in 2024.</li><li>In February 2026, Stripe launched a new employee liquidity tender offer at a $159B valuation, backed primarily by Thrive Capital, Coatue, and Andreessen Horowitz.</li></ul>

Sacra estimates that Stripe hit $6.8B in revenue in 2025, up 33% year-over-year from $5.1B in 2024, with $1.2B in EBITDA.Stripe reported total payment volume of $1.9T in 2025, up 34% year-over-year from $1.4T in 2024.In February 2026, Stripe launched a new employee liquidity tender offer at a $159B valuation, backed primarily by Thrive Capital, Coatue, and Andreessen Horowitz.

<ul><li>In the late 2010s, investors were bullish on digital neobanks like Chime (US), Monzo (UK), and N26 (Germany) because of their rapid growth to millions of users and their structurally lower CAC vs. traditional banks (~$100 vs. $650-700).</li><li>During COVID, CACs went up across the industry as new neobanks proliferated, but when interest rates fell to 0%, it exposed that most of them were swimming naked, with only 5% being profitable.</li><li>As interest rates increased from 0% to ~5%, the outlook for the top neobanks has brightened, with accelerating revenue growth from deposits and lending (interest income was up 167% YoY at Monzo).</li></ul>

In the late 2010s, investors were bullish on digital neobanks like Chime (US), Monzo (UK), and N26 (Germany) because of their rapid growth to millions of users and their structurally lower CAC vs. traditional banks (~$100 vs. $650-700).During COVID, CACs went up across the industry as new neobanks proliferated, but when interest rates fell to 0%, it exposed that most of them were swimming naked, with only 5% being profitable.As interest rates increased from 0% to ~5%, the outlook for the top neobanks has brightened, with accelerating revenue growth from deposits and lending (interest income was up 167% YoY at Monzo).

<ul><li>Betterment and Wealthfront survived the robo-advisor purge by building the biggest brands in the space.</li><li>Growth slowed to low double-digits for both Wealthfront and Betterment in 2021 and 2022 with the rise of meme investing via Robinhood.</li><li>As interest rates have climbed to 5.25-5.50%—the highest levels since 2001—Betterment and Wealthfront’s AUM growth has re-accelerated, growing 50% and 77% respectively.</li></ul>

Betterment and Wealthfront survived the robo-advisor purge by building the biggest brands in the space.Growth slowed to low double-digits for both Wealthfront and Betterment in 2021 and 2022 with the rise of meme investing via Robinhood.As interest rates have climbed to 5.25-5.50%—the highest levels since 2001—Betterment and Wealthfront’s AUM growth has re-accelerated, growing 50% and 77% respectively.

Wealthfront, Betterment, And The robo-advisor Resurrection

Chime Financial / Private Capital Markets

<ul><li>In April 2024, Chime hit $1.5B in annualized revenue with 7M customers (“most with direct deposit”) for ARPU of $214—Chime is now on track to hit $1.9B by the end of 2024, up 46% year-over-year after growing 30% to $1.3B in 2023.</li><li>Now, Chime is launching the fintech product—lending—that has been the biggest driver of increased profits for neobanks around the world, offering loans of up to $1,000 in alignment with their risk-off philosophy around products for low-income consumers.</li><li>Chime (2012) found product-market fit offering totally free checking accounts to the 58% of working adults (about 138 million people) making less than $65K per year just as big banks like Wells Fargo (NYSE: WFC) were introducing minimum balance requirements to recoup revenues post-Great Financial Crisis.</li></ul>

In April 2024, Chime hit $1.5B in annualized revenue with 7M customers (“most with direct deposit”) for ARPU of $214—Chime is now on track to hit $1.9B by the end of 2024, up 46% year-over-year after growing 30% to $1.3B in 2023.Now, Chime is launching the fintech product—lending—that has been the biggest driver of increased profits for neobanks around the world, offering loans of up to $1,000 in alignment with their risk-off philosophy around products for low-income consumers.Chime (2012) found product-market fit offering totally free checking accounts to the 58% of working adults (about 138 million people) making less than $65K per year just as big banks like Wells Fargo (NYSE: WFC) were introducing minimum balance requirements to recoup revenues post-Great Financial Crisis.

<ul><li>Mercury is becoming the Booking.com of startup banking, aggregating demand using free checking accounts and the best banking experience to commoditize suppliers (partner banks) who pay for access to Mercury’s customer base.</li><li>SVB got unbundled during COVID and then unwound completely in 48 hours, with Mercury and Brex initially emerging as the primary beneficiaries, with Mercury adding $2B+ in deposits and thousands of customers in a week.</li><li>SVB’s growth left it vulnerable to bottom-up disruption from Mercury and Brex (both founded in 2017), which offered bank accounts and corporate cards to underserved startups outside the core Silicon Valley clique (e.g., international startups).</li></ul>

Mercury is becoming the Booking.com of startup banking, aggregating demand using free checking accounts and the best banking experience to commoditize suppliers (partner banks) who pay for access to Mercury’s customer base.SVB got unbundled during COVID and then unwound completely in 48 hours, with Mercury and Brex initially emerging as the primary beneficiaries, with Mercury adding $2B+ in deposits and thousands of customers in a week.SVB’s growth left it vulnerable to bottom-up disruption from Mercury and Brex (both founded in 2017), which offered bank accounts and corporate cards to underserved startups outside the core Silicon Valley clique (e.g., international startups).

Mercury: The Unbundling Of Silicon Valley Bank

United States

API for ACH, KYC, and crypto payments for fintech and crypto app developers

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Sila (SILA US)

Primer: Stripe - 18 Aug 2026

API and software suite for accepting payments and managing online financial transactions

Sacra

The Neobank Capital Cycle

TL;DR: The higher interest rate environment of the last few years forced underperforming neobanks to shut down, but the top players are doing...

Sacra

Wealthfront, Betterment, And The robo-advisor Resurrection

TL;DR: Betterment and Wealthfront survived the robo-advisor purge by building the biggest brands in the space—before the cost of customer...

Sacra

Chime At $1.5B/year

TL;DR: Chime hit $1.5B in annualized revenue in April 2024 with the unsexy business model of neobanking for low-income consumers. Now they're...

Sacra

Mercury: The Unbundling Of Silicon Valley Bank

TL;DR: As Silicon Valley Bank collapsed last week, $3B+ in funds flowed through the startup ecosystem to other startups, particularly neobanks...

Sacra

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