Dave (company)

Dave (also known as Dave.com ) is a digital banking service. The service's main focus is on cash advances. This service works off of tips and subscription fees rather than overdraft fees.

Services
Dave's main service is short-term lending. The company does not charge interest, or origination or similar fees, instead charging for expedited service and a monthly fee; to use the service, and giving the option to "tip" the company. Lauren Saunders of the National Consumer Law Center expressed concern that some users may feel compelled to tip, resulting in it being not too different from paying interest. Dave launched a banking service in 2019, through a partnership with Evolve Bank & Trust. It has a service for finding side-work called SideHustle.

History
Shark Tank star Mark Cuban led a $3 million seed investment round in the company, saying he was crushed by overdraft fees in his twenties. The CEO of Dave, Jason Wilk, was the former creator of AllScreen, a company which was also originally funded by Cuban, who put in a $300,000 investment. After the initial investment in Dave by Cuban and other investors, the total funding of the app has increased to $180 million after the $50 million investment by Norwest Venture Capital. The Dave app was the Apple App of the Day in April 2017. It has been downloaded 10 million times on iOS and over a million times on Android devices. In July 2019, the company was named one of the next billion-dollar startups by Forbes. In October 2019, Dave received a valuation of US$1 billion, and had over four million users.

Dave was ranked number five in Inc. Magazine list of 5,000 fastest growing companies for 2021. Dave went public on NASDAQ via SPAC on January 6, 2022 through VPC Impact Acquisition Holdings III created by longtime Dave investor Victory Park Capital. The initial valuation was $4 billion.