Wealth app Chip raises £17m as Channel 4 backs TV push
Channel 4 Ventures has invested in UK wealth app Chip as part of a £17m funding round, marking the company’s first institutional backing and funding a major TV advertising campaign, Morning Wire can reveal.
The round values Chip at £208m and combines £6m of media-for-equity from Channel 4 Ventures, with £11m raised from more than 9,000 retail investors via Crowdcube.
Channel 4’s contribution will be delivered through ad inventory across its broadcast and streaming platforms, rather than cash.
Chip, founded in 2017 by Simon Rabin and Alex Latham, has until now relied almost entirely on crowdfunding to finance its growth.
The firm has over 500,000 active customers, administers around £6bn in assets and generated revenues of £23.8m in 2024. It ranked 16th on the Sunday Times 100 Tech list this month, driven by strong sales growth over the past three years.
Chip’s funding structure
The structure of the round follows a broader shift towards scale and shareholder management.
Around £2m of the funding has been used to provide partial liquidity for existing investors, allowing early retail backers to sell some of their holdings.
Chip plans to formalise this approach through an annual secondary share sale strategy developed with investment platform Crowdcube.
This is intended to give investors a periodic route to liquidity, which is a feature still relatively rare among crowdfunded private firms.
More than 30,000 individuals now hold shares in Chip, making it the most widely owned private company in the UK. And since its launch, the business has raised over 50m from retail investors.
The deal supports Channel 4’s strategy to diversify revenues by taking equity stakes in consumer-facing growth companies in exchange for advertising.
For Chip, the partnership provides significant global exposure as it seeks to compete more directly with established consumer finance brands.
The funding will support a TV-led marketing campaign later this year, as well as new product launches, like personalised investment tools or AI-driven financial guidance.