Dave (NASDAQ:DAVE) reported what management called its “strongest year” in company history, driven by rapid revenue growth, expanding margins, and improving credit performance tied to its CashAI underwriting model.
Full-year 2025 results and outperformance versus prior guidance
CEO Jason Wilk said 2025 revenue rose 60% to $554 million, while Adjusted EBITDA reached $227 million, representing an Adjusted EBITDA margin of roughly 41%. Wilk compared the results with the company’s initial 2025 outlook of $415 million to $435 million in revenue and $110 million to $120 million in Adjusted EBITDA, noting that Dave raised guidance each quarter and ultimately exceeded the midpoint of its original revenue guidance by 30% while “nearly” doubling its original EBITDA guidance.
Fourth-quarter performance and unit economics
Beilman reported fourth-quarter revenue of $163.7 million, up 62% year-over-year and 9% sequentially. Fourth-quarter GAAP net income was $66 million versus $16.8 million in the prior-year period. Adjusted EBITDA in the quarter was a record $72.3 million, up 118% year-over-year, with a 45% margin (about 1,100 basis points of expansion, according to management).
Gross profit in Q4 rose 68% year-over-year to $121.9 million, while gross margin was 74%, up about 300 basis points year-over-year and 500 basis points sequentially. Beilman said the sequential margin improvement was primarily driven by a lower provision for credit losses as a percentage of revenue, reflecting improved credit performance from CashAI v5.5, as well as a “favorable quarter-end calendar dynamic” because Q4 ended on a Wednesday rather than a Tuesday in Q3.
On customer acquisition spending, Beilman said advertising and activation costs were $19.7 million in Q4, up 34% year-over-year, as Dave increased user acquisition given “significant returns” and payback periods under four months. Wilk said Dave’s approach is to deploy marketing to maximize gross profit rather than minimize customer acquisition cost (CAC). In Q4, he said Dave acquired 867,000 new members, up 13% year-over-year, at a $20 CAC. Wilk also said annualized gross profit per multi-transaction member (MTM) rose $48 year-over-year and that the gross profit payback period improved by nearly a month to under four months.
Beilman also pointed to operating leverage in fixed costs. He said compensation expense declined 7% year-over-year in Q4 and was roughly flat sequentially. Excluding stock-based compensation, he said fixed expenses were about 19% of revenue, an improvement of roughly 800 basis points year-over-year.
Growth “algorithm,” ExtraCash trends, and credit performance
Wilk framed the company’s strategy around what he called a durable “growth algorithm” of sustaining mid-teens member growth and low double-digit average revenue per user (ARPU) growth. He said ARPU expanded 36% year-over-year and that multi-transaction members accelerated 19%, leaving the company “well positioned” entering 2026. Wilk said Dave’s 2.9 million MTMs remain a small fraction of a stated 185 million customer total addressable market (TAM).
ExtraCash, Dave’s short-term credit product, continued to scale. Wilk said originations reached a record $2.2 billion in Q4, up 50% year-over-year, driven by 19% MTM growth and a 20% increase in average ExtraCash size to $214.
Management emphasized credit improvement from CashAI v5.5, which Wilk said was trained on the company’s new fee structure and uses nearly twice as many AI-driven features as the prior model. Wilk said the Q4 28 days past due (DPD) rate improved 12% sequentially to 1.89%, beating the company’s guidance of below 2.1% for the quarter. Beilman separately reported that the company’s 28-day delinquency rate improved 14 basis points sequentially to 2.19%, while the 28 DPD metric improved 26 basis points, or 12% sequentially, to 1.89%.
Beilman said Dave plans to stop reporting the 28-day delinquency rate in 2026 and instead use 28 DPD as its core delinquency metric. He added that the first quarter typically has the lowest delinquency and loss rates seasonally due to tax refunds, and said performance to date in Q1 was tracking consistent with that pattern.
Improving credit and ARPU contributed to stronger monetization metrics, according to management. Beilman said Dave’s Net Monetization Rate—defined as ExtraCash revenue net of 121-day losses as a percentage of origination—expanded 29 basis points year-over-year to a record 4.8%. He also said average revenue per ExtraCash origination net of losses rose 27% year-over-year.
During Q&A, Wilk said the company still sees “a lot of room left to run” in v5.5 but expects to begin testing CashAI v6.0 later in 2026. He highlighted the short duration of the ExtraCash portfolio, stating the book turns over every eight to 10 days, which he said enables rapid model testing and rollout.
Dave Card, subscriptions, and product roadmap
Wilk said Dave Card spending grew 17% year-over-year to $534 million in Q4. He also said high-margin subscription revenue increased 92% year-over-year, benefiting from the full impact of a $3 monthly subscription fee for new members. Management said that as more of the MTM base is acquired under the new pricing, subscription revenue is expected to become a more meaningful share of total revenue.
In response to an analyst question about whether the $3 subscription affects retention or conversion compared with the prior $1 subscription, Wilk said the company tested subscription price points from $0 to $5 for about six months and landed on $3 because it saw no impact to retention or conversion. Beilman later added that existing members will remain at $1 per month “for now,” though he said there may be future optionality if paired with added product value.
On engagement, Wilk said Dave has historically seen about 30% of all ExtraCash dollars flow onto the Dave Card. When asked about wallet share, management said direct deposit adoption is not yet significant enough to estimate overall spend penetration, though Wilk reiterated the roughly 30% flow of ExtraCash dollars to the Dave Card. Beilman added that connected accounts show customers generally have about $3,000 to $4,000 of income coming into those accounts, and said ExtraCash as a proportion of that income is “relatively small,” implying low penetration of potential spend and credit needs.
Wilk also provided an update on a new Pay in Four product. He said the product is in internal testing and could begin customer testing “as early as next month,” later specifying that customer testing is expected sometime in April. Wilk said the offering will not accrue compound interest or charge late fees. Management said it does not expect “meaningful” Pay in Four revenue in 2026, with focus instead on optimizing unit economics before scaling in 2027.
In Q&A, management acknowledged it expects some cannibalization of ExtraCash as Pay in Four rolls out, but said the products are largely complementary because use cases differ—ExtraCash is primarily used for “bills, gas, groceries,” while Pay in Four targets more discretionary spending. Wilk also said monetization for Pay in Four may be slightly lower than ExtraCash, but management expects longer retention and potentially higher lifetime value (LTV). The company also suggested Pay in Four could become a new user-acquisition channel that expands marketing scale.
Funding transition, share repurchases, and 2026 outlook
Management said it remains on track to begin transitioning ExtraCash receivables to an off-balance sheet funding structure with Coastal Community Bank next quarter. Beilman said that, upon full implementation, the structure is expected to unlock over $200 million of incremental liquidity, reduce cost of capital, and enable repayment of the company’s existing credit facility by mid-year. He also said fees paid to Coastal will be recognized as an operating expense, which will reduce non-GAAP gross profit and gross margin but will be added back for Adjusted EBITDA.
Beilman said the company expects to mimic the Coastal structure for the Pay in Four receivables as well, with the “overwhelming majority” of receivables sitting at Coastal, describing the approach as capital efficient.
On capital allocation, Beilman said the board approved an increase in the share repurchase authorization from $125 million to $300 million. He said the company expects to begin executing “aggressively” against the authorization in the near term, citing confidence in intrinsic value and a commitment to return capital to shareholders while investing in profitable growth.
For 2026, Dave guided for revenue of $690 million to $710 million (about 25% to 28% year-over-year growth) and Adjusted EBITDA of $290 million to $305 million. For the first time, the company introduced Adjusted EPS guidance of $14 to $15, assuming an estimated effective tax rate of approximately 23% in 2026. Beilman said the outlook assumes continued mid-teens MTM growth and continued ARPU expansion, with modest incremental investments in product development and go-to-market while continuing to expand annual Adjusted EBITDA margins.
Beilman also raised his gross margin outlook for 2026, saying the company now expects gross margins in the low 70s range, up from prior expectations of upper 60s to low 70s, supported by improving credit performance and a growing subscription revenue mix. He cautioned that Q1 ends on a Tuesday, which typically increases outstanding receivables and provisions for credit losses, creating an adverse impact to provision comparisons despite underlying credit trends. He added that Dave is moderating marketing investment in Q1 due to seasonal softness and ExtraCash demand patterns tied to tax refunds, while planning to expand marketing investment for the remainder of the year above Q4 2025 levels.
On credit assumptions embedded in guidance, Beilman said the company expects performance broadly consistent with Q4’s 1.89% 28 DPD rate, and said extrapolating that to the 121-day loss metric implies about 1.3%. He added that the company’s focus is less on pushing loss rates lower and more on increasing MTMs while sustaining losses around that level.
Wilk also briefly addressed the company’s DOJ matter, saying the case remains in discovery with no material updates, and that Dave continues to “vigorously defend” its position that it was in compliance with applicable law.
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.
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