The current series E has entered. The New York neobank has raised $80m, led by Springcoast Partners, at a $1.5bn valuation.
That title hides the real story. In 2021, Andreessen Horowitz is currently worth $2.2bn. The new round sits about a third below that point.
So this is a downward cycle. And, the company says, it’s a symbol of strength. Revenue grew more than 70 percent last year, the third year in a row. Current says it will now turn a profit in 2026.
The higher the growth, the lower the rating
That gap is the post-2021 fintech story in a nutshell. Money was cheap in 2021. The valuation ran ahead of the profit.
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Then the prices go up, and the market starts again. The current has grown to its old value rather than out of it. Revenue kept rising, but the $2.2bn tag took years to chase.
The numbers refer to the arc. The Series C led by Tiger Global was valued at $750m in 2020. Series D tripled that in five months. This round is the slowest, most sober form of fintech finance.
What is bought is the current series E
It is currently selling the bank to Americans who live paycheck to paycheck. The app includes spending, saving, investing, and early access to earnings. The secured “Build” card helps users raise their credit scores.
Of course, Current is not a bank. It is a fintech that places customer deposits with partners such as Cross River Bank and Choice Financial Group.
Stuart Sopp, a former Morgan Stanley trader, founded Current in 2015. It grew rapidly during the epidemic, when renewal payments arrived at the beginning of his accounts. In December 2024, it raised new equity and debt after record growth, Axios reports.
The new currency funds the same, with an AI layer on top. Current will expand its banking, payments, cash, and credit products. It also deepened two financing commitments, with Cross River and General Catalyst’s Customer Value Fund, to lend on a larger scale.
Sopp and chief technology officer Trevor Marshall have a catchphrase for their AI command: “return tokens.” They told the Fintech Business Weekly podcast that they are measuring what each dollar of AI returns, rather than buying a computer on faith.
The road to public markets
The promotion reads like pre-IPO housekeeping. Springcoast takes a board seat. The list of sponsors, which includes a16z, Tiger Global, Wellington, Sapphire, and QED, is the kind you want to get out.
Sopp specifies the destination. He said the round “reflects confidence in the strength of our business, our progress in public market readiness, and the value we create for millions of members.”
The current joins the thick line. Klarna is adding savings accounts to its US app as it looks to become a bank. Monzo left the US to pursue a London listing. The US IPO pipeline is filling up fast.
Pressure runs across the board. Starling’s latest UK results show investors are now looking for long-term returns from neobanks, not just growth.
The bull case is clean. A neobank that grows by 70 percent a year, turns out to be profitable, with a real interest in lending, can write well. The bear case is a downward cycle in itself. Public investors, unlike the private ones of 2021, will value the present for what it earns, not for what it might do.
