Dave Buys Back Note From FTX

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Dave Buys Back Note From FTX
Jason Wilk at the West Hollywood office of Dave.

The digital banking service Dave Inc. recently tied up loose ends with its former investor FTX Ventures, the venture arm of the failed cryptocurrency exchange FTX.

On Jan. 5, West Hollywood-based Dave agreed to buy back a $100 million promissory note the former crypto giant issued almost two years ago at a discount of $71 million. According to Dave’s founder and chief executive Jason Wilk, the company’s balance sheet can withstand the buyback.

A promissory note, unlike a typical loan or equity financing, is a debt instrument with a specific payment amount due either on demand or at a specific date two parties agree to. 

The Sam Bankman-Fried-founded FTX first penned such financing with Dave in a strategic partnership announced in March 2022, with the hopes to incorporate crypto features into the neobank’s apps in motion while the decentralized market soared. Now as the crypto firm undergoes its bankruptcy process, entities that received funding from its venture arm and Bankman-Fried directly are buying back investments. According to Dave, the close of the discounted note repurchase must be approved by both the Bankruptcy Court and by FTX, which has been recovering as much cash and crypto assets as possible since filing for bankruptcy and is now evaluating an exchange relaunch.

Dave, founded in 2016 by Wilk, who is a Loyola Marymount alum, operates out of the Pacific Design Center in West Hollywood. With backing from investors including Mark Cuban, the digital finance platform entered the saturated fintech market as a “second chance” option for individuals unable to open accounts with traditional banks or financially strained by overdraft fees. According to its third-quarter earnings report, its most recent, Dave brings in more than $257 million in revenue per year and boasts almost 10 million members.

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