# Ryan King

> Ryan A. King is the San Francisco-based co-founder and director of Chime, the consumer financial technology company he started with Chris Britt in 2012. A UCLA- and Stanford-trained computer scientist, King moved from engineering roles at Microsoft and Liberate Technologies to Plaxo and Comcast before becoming Chime's original chief technology officer. His story runs from a coin flip that sent him toward computer science, through a 2016 fundraising crisis in which more than 100 investors declined, to Chime's 2025 Nasdaq listing and the 2026 rollout of its proprietary ChimeCore infrastructure.

- **Role:** Co-Founder and Director at Chime
- **Organizations:** Chime, Comcast Silicon Valley Innovation Center, Plaxo, Liberate Technologies, Microsoft, ZayZoon
- **Education:** B.S. in Computer Science and Engineering, University of California, Los Angeles, M.S. in Computer Science, Stanford University
- **Known for:** Co-founded Chime in 2012 and served as its original CTO., Built and led Chime's early product and technology organizations., Helped guide Chime from a near-cash crisis in 2016 to a Nasdaq listing in June 2025.

## Career timeline

- **1990s** — Held a software engineering role at Microsoft.
- **1999-2003** — Worked in engineering leadership at Liberate Technologies, including manager of server engineering.
- **2003-2008** — Joined Plaxo early and rose to vice president of engineering before Comcast acquired the company.
- **2008-2012** — Worked at Comcast, later serving as CTO and vice president at the Comcast Silicon Valley Innovation Center.
- **2012** — Co-founded Chime with Chris Britt and became its original chief technology officer.
- **2016** — Helped keep Chime alive after more than 100 investor rejections; Lauren Kolodny led a $9 million Series A extension, the only term sheet available.
- **2019** — Joined Chime's board of directors.
- **2022** — Completed his first tenure as Chime CTO in August, while remaining co-founder and director.
- **2023-2024** — Returned as CTO from August 2023 to May 2024.
- **2025** — Chime listed on Nasdaq on June 12 after pricing its IPO at $27 per share and raising $864 million.
- **2026** — Discussed ChimeCore and AI in financial services in public podcast appearances as Chime passed 10 million active members.

## Achievements

- Co-founded Chime in 2012 and served as its original CTO.
- Built and led Chime's early product and technology organizations.
- Helped guide Chime from a near-cash crisis in 2016 to a Nasdaq listing in June 2025.
- Previously helped scale Plaxo to roughly 20 million users before its acquisition by Comcast in 2008; contemporary reports placed the undisclosed price between $150 million and $170 million.
- Helped shape Chime's strategy to reduce single-vendor dependence and build proprietary infrastructure, later launched as ChimeCore.
- Serves on Chime's board and has also served as a board member of earned-wage-access company ZayZoon.

## Latest updates

- **2026-09** — Chime announced an agreement to acquire longtime partner Stride Bank for $590 million in cash; on closing, it is expected to become Chime Bank, N.A.
- **2026-08** — Chime reported 10.4 million active members, $670 million in quarterly revenue, and a second consecutive quarter of GAAP profitability.
- **2026-07** — King appeared on FinTech Futures' What the FinTech? podcast to discuss the development and deployment of ChimeCore.
- **2026-05** — King joined the Banking on Primacy podcast to discuss AI, business-model alignment, and the primary-account relationship.
- **2025-06** — Chime began trading on Nasdaq under the ticker CHYM after raising $864 million in its IPO.

## Links

- Website: https://www.chime.com/
- LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/ryanaking/
- Twitter/X: https://x.com/ryanking

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Profile page: https://yespress.io/ryan-king
Published by YesPress — https://yespress.io
Last updated: 2026-09-26