Dave (NASDAQ:DAVE) founder and CEO Jason Wilk told attendees at the 2026 Wolfe Research Fintech Forum that the neobank is focused on scaling short-duration credit and debit-led engagement, with artificial intelligence playing a central role in underwriting, marketing, customer support, and fraud prevention.
Business overview and key operating metrics
Wilk described Dave as “one of the leading neobanks in the world,” with more than 14 million registered customers. He said the company’s differentiation centers on short-duration credit that can provide customers “up to $500 between paychecks,” positioned as an alternative to overdraft fees for everyday expenses such as gas and groceries.
- Monthly transacting members (MTMs): 2.9 million, defined as customers who take an ExtraCash origination, swipe a debit card, or pay a subscription fee.
- Total originations: more than $2 billion per quarter.
- 28-days-past-due loss rate: about 1.89%.
2025 performance and underwriting-driven outperformance
Discussing the company’s re-reported Q4 2025 results, Wilk said 2025 was a “tremendous year” in which Dave generated more than $550 million of “top line” and more than $230 million of EBITDA. He said revenue increased 60% year over year and that the company “significantly outpaced” its guidance for the year.
Wilk attributed the outperformance primarily to improvements in underwriting that increased originations per user. He also pointed to MTM growth, noting the company exceeded its target with 19% growth to 2.9 million MTMs. On acquisition, he said customer acquisition costs remained resilient and that Dave added nearly 900,000 new customers during the quarter.
Credit performance and CashAI model updates
Wilk said Dave’s specialty is cash-flow underwriting, with customers connecting their primary checking accounts via Plaid and providing typically six to 12 months of transaction history. He said Dave introduced AI into its models in 2019 and has seen steady improvements since then.
He noted the 28-days-past-due loss rate was around 1.89%, and said the company’s goal is to continue growing originations per user while holding loss rates “really steady.” Wilk emphasized that the product’s short duration—an average of about eight days—and access to the repayment mechanism through connection to the customer’s primary checking account give the company meaningful control over loss outcomes, describing the credit as “semi-secured” in that context.
On model development, Wilk said Dave launched CashAI v5.5 in September and expects to begin testing v6.0 later this year, adding that the company typically ships one major new model per year while making continuous improvements. He said v5.5 has increased originations per user while also reducing loss rates to the current level, and that it includes about 200 new features compared with v5.0, with v6.0 expected to include “many hundred more.”
Monetization changes and guidance outlook
Wilk also discussed a major pricing shift in ExtraCash monetization. He said that through 2024 the company largely monetized ExtraCash through optional tips, but as Dave pushed customers up the credit limit curve, average tips tended to decline. In 2025, the company introduced a mandatory fee model charging “a $5 minimum or 5% transaction fee for each origination,” which Wilk said produced a “tremendous outcome” without degrading conversion or retention.
Turning to outlook, Wilk said Dave’s 2026 guidance calls for 25% to 28% year-over-year revenue growth, with “healthy” adjusted EBITDA margin expansion. He characterized the company’s approach to guidance as conservative and said the midpoint implies about $700 million of revenue. He cited confidence in cohort behavior, repeat customer data, and a marketing engine that he said supports a “highly forecastable” business.
Product roadmap: Flex Card and subscription growth
Wilk said Dave plans to launch a new product called the Flex Card, a pay-in-four solution intended to let customers split purchases into four installments. He framed the product as both a cross-sell lever to increase lifetime value and a new top-of-funnel driver.
He argued the Flex Card is aimed less at disrupting traditional buy now, pay later and more at displacing subprime credit cards, which he said often profit from delinquency through revolving balances and late fees. Wilk said Dave’s pay-in-four approach is designed to be more predictable and transparent, with “a higher monthly fee” and “a simple transaction fee,” and to have “no compound interest, and no late fees.” He said the product is currently being tested with internal employees, with testing for some existing users expected next quarter and broader scaling dependent on underwriting performance.
On subscriptions, Wilk said Dave charges a $1 per month membership fee that includes access to its checking account and ExtraCash, as well as a Side Hustle job board. He said the company tested raising the price for new customers to $3 for six months, saw no impact on conversion or retention, and expanded the $3 price for all new customers starting in June of last year. Wilk said recurring revenue is expected to become a larger portion of the business, especially with the Flex Card’s higher subscription fee.
Wilk also discussed engagement and retention dynamics, noting ExtraCash can be episodic. He said MTMs represent a subset of total account holders, and that customers may use the product in one month and then return later. He said about 97% of originations in a given month or quarter come from repeat customers, and that average tenure is close to two years.
On efficiency, Wilk said Dave operates with significant leverage at roughly 300 headcount, expecting to add modestly to about 320. He said the new pay-in-four solution is being built with the existing team and reiterated a view that incremental customers beyond a certain scale translate largely into gross profit flowing through to EBITDA.
Wilk also provided an update on funding, saying the company expects to begin transitioning to a Coastal Community Bank structure at the end of the second quarter, which he said would allow Coastal to originate and hold ExtraCash receivables. He said the change is expected to unlock about $200 million of cash by the end of summer. In anticipation of that, he said the company raised a convertible note the prior week to accelerate share repurchases.
About Dave (NASDAQ:DAVE)
Dave, Inc is a Los Angeles–based financial technology company founded in 2016 by Jason Wilk and John Wolanin. The company offers a subscription-based mobile app designed to help consumers avoid overdraft fees, manage their budgets and track expenses. Through its platform, members receive low-balance alerts, expense categorization and cash-advance capabilities tied to upcoming deposits.
At the core of Dave’s offering is fee-free overdraft protection: eligible users can request small, interest-free advances up to a preset limit, typically repaid on their next paycheck or deposit.
