Jason Lee, the entrepreneur who cofounded the payroll service DailyPay, is selling his latest startup, Salt Labs, to neobank Chime Financial. Roughly all of Salt’s 22 employees will join Chime, including Lee, who will lead a new business unit. The deal, which is expected to close later this week, calls for Chime to provide an upfront payment of $14 million, according to people familiar with the deal.
The transaction also includes an earnout where the Salt team can earn over time an equity package of up to 0.9% of Chime stock if they achieve certain performance metrics, they said. Nearly the entire deal is stock-based. The full earnout, together with the cash payment, means the total price of the transaction could be $173 million, but this is contingent on Lee and the Salt team hitting lofty performance targets, according to two different people familiar with the transaction. Chime declined to comment on deal terms.
