Pros
Pre-IPO bank based in San Francisco
Cons
1. Varo called themself a fintech but they are nothing but a regional bank, penny-pinching, and slow to move. 2. Varo claims to have more than 4 million customers but a very small portion of it is daily active. Avg customer account balance is in double-digit and most are $0, Their target customers are unbanked and low income, while its a noble idea to provide financial services to this segment, but there is a good reason why large banks avoid this segment. Its too expensive and doesnt contribute to profit. Unfortunately, people with $0 struggle with daily expenses, and they cannot use bank's profit-making products like lending. Varo will never go profit, it's the VC's money that keeping it afloat far now once that dry's up then it is destined to sink. Varo right now makes revenue through ATM fees, they leech these poor people. So if you are thinking that its the next Chime then it's not. Bay Area has enough fintech startups, this is not the one. 3. Other new banks dont have a bank charter, they invest in company's growth and making great products. Varo claims that bank charter is their strength but its not, they spent more than $125 million of VC money to get this charter and now they are regulated like any other bank which is expensive. I think they should have not got the charter so early. SOFI got the bank charter 12 yrs after getting founded, for the first 10 yrs their focus was user growth. 4. Varo compares itself with SOFI and valued its stock at $7.88 but SOFI is 8 times bigger than Varo and is profitable, SOFI's stock is $6.5 (Aug 2022). Money Lion stock is $1.25 and they are 3 times bigger than Varo, I think Varo is a penny stock. I will short Varo if I can. 5. Varo uses diversity and inclusion only in its marketing, in my 6 months there, I have not seen a single person of color. Just check their CEO, CPO, CMO, its a complete whitewash. Having few Chinese and Indians in a Silicon Vally company does count.