Competitor Spotlight · built for Upbound Group
Dave: Brigit’s most direct competitor — and already 2–3× its size
Upbound paid up to $460M for Brigit to enter cash advance and financial health. Dave (NASDAQ: DAVE) is the breakout leader in that exact lane: roughly 3× the revenue, 2× the active base, GAAP-profitable, and building a banking flywheel Brigit doesn’t have. This is the most direct competitive read in the portfolio.
Sourcing discipline. Dave’s figures are all primary-sourced (IR, SEC, earnings releases). Brigit’s comparison numbers are approximate — see the note under the head-to-head. Verified June 2026; market figures move daily.
At a glance
A penny-stock survivor turned profitable compounder.
The trajectory
A $129M loss to a $196M profit in three years.
Revenue ($M) · Net income ($M). Revenue grew from $205M to $554M in three years while net income swung from a $129M loss to $196M profit (first profitable year: FY2024). FY2026 guidance was raised at Q1: revenue $710–720M, adjusted EBITDA $305–315M. FY2025 8-K · Q1 2026 release
How Dave works
A 0% cash advance, a $1 membership, and a banking flywheel.
ExtraCash is the core: an advance of $25–$500, 0% interest, no late fees, no credit check, funded in minutes and underwritten by CashAI — a cash-flow model trained on 150M+ originations, recalculated daily. Around it sits a Dave Checking account, the Dave Card (interchange), a $1/month membership, and a side-hustle board.
Before
Old model: an optional “tip” defaulted to ~15% of the advance, plus a separate $3–$25 “express” instant-transfer fee. The FTC alleged the default tip generated $149M+ from 2022 to mid-2024.
After
New model (completed Feb 2025): a single, transparent 5% service fee ($5 minimum, $15 maximum). Optional tips and the express fee were eliminated; instant transfers to a Dave Checking account are now free.
Like Affirm, Dave is being pulled toward fee transparency — partly by choice, partly by the FTC. The category’s direction of travel is unmistakable. Fee transition ↗
- Service revenue (ExtraCash fees + $1/mo membership)~$512M and growing ~64% YoY — the core engine.
- Transaction revenue (Dave Card interchange)~$42M — small today, but the banking flywheel that creates deposit stickiness.
Revenue mix, FY2025. FY2025 results · CashAI
Head-to-head: Dave vs Brigit
The gap Upbound bought into — and is, for now, widening.
| Dave | Brigit (Upbound) | |
|---|---|---|
| Active / paying base | 2.99M monthly transacting members | ~1.6M paying subscribers |
| FY2025 revenue | $554M (+60%) | ~$206M |
| Profitability | $196M net income (profitable since FY2024) | sub-scale within Upbound |
| Standalone value | ~$4.0B market cap | bought for up to $460M |
| Banking layer | Yes — Checking + Dave Card + interchange flywheel | No deposit account |
| Underwriting | CashAI — cash-flow model trained on 150M+ originations | Proprietary, smaller data base |
Brigit’s exact FY2025 revenue (~$206M) and paying-subscriber count (~1.6M) are close to but not pinned to a single published line in Upbound’s filings — treat as approximate. Dave figures are all primary-sourced. Upbound / Brigit close
The comeback
Worth knowing — it shapes how to read the valuation.
Dave IPO’d via SPAC in January 2022 at a ~$4B valuation near $10/share — then cratered ~98% as the SPAC market collapsed, needing a 1-for-32 reverse split in 2023 just to keep its Nasdaq listing (post-split low ≈ $0.14 equivalent). Then it became CNBC’s #1 financial stock of 2024 (+934%), rose ~150% more in 2025, and trades near $314 today. One of the great post-SPAC comebacks — and it’s now earnings-backed, not hype.
The regulatory picture
A live FTC suit, a federal reprieve, and a state patchwork.
FTC / DOJ lawsuit — active ↗
Filed Nov 2024, amended Dec 2024 to name CEO Jason Wilk personally: deceptive “up to $500” marketing, undisclosed express fees, a surprise default tip, and ROSCA cancellation claims on the $1/mo membership. In discovery as of mid-2026; not settled. Dave disputes it and changed its fee model in parallel.
CFPB: “EWA is not credit” ↗
A Dec 2025 CFPB advisory concluded earned-wage-access / paycheck-advance products are not credit under TILA, withdrawing the 2024 proposal to regulate them like loans — a federal reprieve for the whole category.
But the states cut the other way ↗
California (DFPI registration) and Maryland (effective Oct 2025) treat EWA as lending. A city of Baltimore suit (Dec 2025) adds pressure. The compliance map is a patchwork.
What it means for Upbound
The most direct competitive read in the portfolio.
Upbound bought into Dave’s category — at #2
Upbound paid up to $460M for Brigit to enter cash-advance / financial health. Dave is the breakout leader in that exact lane: ~3× the revenue, ~2× the active base, and GAAP-profitable. The acquisition thesis lives or dies on scaling Brigit against a rival compounding at 60%.
The banking flywheel is the structural gap
Dave Checking + Card create deposits, free instant transfers, and an interchange annuity that compounds retention. Brigit is a feature; Dave is becoming a bank. Closing that gap is Upbound’s hardest, most important problem in this segment.
Underwriting is the whole game — and Dave is winning it
In unsecured advances to fragile users, loss rates decide everything. Dave’s CashAI (150M+ originations) is delivering record-low delinquency (1.69% past-due). Brigit needs a credible answer on credit performance, not just acquisition.
The regulatory overhang is shared — and easing
The FTC suit and fee-model shift are real risks for Dave, but the Dec 2025 CFPB “EWA is not credit” reversal de-risks the category federally. Upbound enters a space where the leader already absorbed the fee-transparency hit and kept growing.
What could slow it — the bear case
The other side of a fast-compounding story.
- Credit/default: ExtraCash is unsecured, no-credit-check lending to financially fragile members. Delinquency is at record lows today (1.69% past-due), but it’s the swing factor in any downturn.
- Regulatory: the active FTC/DOJ suit (CEO personally named) plus state EWA-as-lending regimes (CA, MD) and a Baltimore suit — a patchwork that contradicts the favorable federal CFPB stance.
- Revenue concentration: ~92% of revenue is service-based (ExtraCash fees). Any forced change to fee economics hits the core P&L directly.
- Competition: Brigit (Upbound), EarnIn, MoneyLion (now inside Gen Digital), Chime SpotMe, and Empower/Tilt all chase the same liquidity moment.
- Valuation: ~$4B cap on ~$554M revenue — defensible at ~20× earnings given growth + profitability, but priced for continued execution.
So what for Upbound
The recommendation
- Treat Dave as the benchmark Brigit must close on, not a peer. Track the revenue, member, and profitability gaps as standing scorecard lines — they’re currently widening.
- Prioritize the banking layer. A Brigit deposit account + card is the structural move that turns a feature into a flywheel. Without it, the interchange and retention gap compounds.
- Own the loss-rate story. Underwriting performance, not downloads, decides this category. Invest in cash-flow underwriting and report it like Dave does.
- Use the transparency tailwind. Dave’s FTC-driven fee cleanup and the CFPB reprieve mean a transparent, well-underwritten Brigit can compete on trust — a CX advantage Upbound should press.
Built by Paul Brown from Dave’s public filings — part of an interlocking set of competitor spotlights. Dave is the benchmark Brigit has to chase; the question for Upbound is whether it can close the gap before it widens further.