As filed with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission on October 8, 2021.

Registration No. 333-

UNITED STATES

SECURITIES AND EXCHANGE COMMISSION

Washington, D.C. 20549

FORM S-1

REGISTRATION STATEMENT

UNDER

THE SECURITIES ACT OF 1933

NERDWALLET, INC.

(Exact name of Registrant as specified in its charter)

Delaware	7375	45-4180440
(State or other jurisdiction of incorporation or organization)	(Primary Standard Industrial Classification Code Number)	(I.R.S. Employer Identification Number)

875 Stevenson St., 5th Floor

San Francisco, CA 94103

(415) 549-8913

(Address, including zip code, and telephone number, including area code, of Registrant’s principal executive offices)

Tim Chen

Chief Executive Officer

NerdWallet, Inc.

875 Stevenson St., 5th Floor

San Francisco, CA 94103

(415) 549-8913

(Name, address, including zip code, and telephone number, including area code, of agent for service)

Copies to:

John Sellers David Peinsipp Nicole Orders Cooley LLP 3175 Hanover Street Palo Alto, CA 94304 (650) 843-5000 Ekumene Lysonge Aby Castro Office of the General Counsel NerdWallet, Inc. 875 Stevenson St., 5th Floor San Francisco, CA 94103 (415) 549-8913 Richard Kline Sarah Axtell Latham & Watkins LLP 140 Scott Drive Menlo Park, CA 94025 (650) 328-4600

Approximate date of commencement of proposed sale to the public: As soon as practicable after this Registration Statement is declared effective.

If any of the securities being registered on this form are to be offered on a delayed or continuous basis pursuant to Rule 415 under the Securities Act of 1933, check the following box.

If this form is filed to register additional securities for an offering pursuant to Rule 462(b) under the Securities Act, check the following box and list the Securities Act registration statement number of the earlier effective registration statement for the same offering. ☐

If this form is a post-effective amendment filed pursuant to Rule 462(c) under the Securities Act, check the following box and list the Securities Act registration statement number of the earlier effective registration statement for the same offering. ☐

If this form is a post-effective amendment filed pursuant to Rule 462(d) under the Securities Act, check the following box and list the Securities Act registration statement number of the earlier effective registration statement for the same offering. ☐

Indicate by check mark whether the registrant is a large accelerated filer, an accelerated filer, a non-accelerated filer, a smaller reporting company or an emerging growth company. See the definitions of “large accelerated filer,” “accelerated filer,” “smaller reporting company” and “emerging growth company” in Rule 12b-2 of the Exchange Act.

Large accelerated filer     ☐	Accelerated filer     ☐
Non-accelerated filer     ☒	Smaller reporting company     ☐
	Emerging growth company     ☒

If an emerging growth company, indicate by check mark if the registrant has elected not to use the extended transition period for complying with any new or revised financial accounting standards provided pursuant to Section 7(a)(2)(B) of the Securities Act.

CALCULATION OF REGISTRATION FEE

Title of Each Class of Securities To Be Registered	Proposed Maximum Aggregate Offering Price(1)(2)		Amount of Registration Fee
Class A common stock, $0.0001 par value per share	$	100,000,000	$	9,270

(1)Estimated solely for the purpose of calculating the registration fee pursuant to Rule 457(o) under the Securities Act of 1933, as amended.

(2)Includes the aggregate offering price of additional shares that the underwriters have the option to purchase.

The Registrant hereby amends this Registration Statement on such date or dates as may be necessary to delay its effective date until the Registrant shall file a further amendment which specifically states that this Registration Statement shall thereafter become effective in accordance with Section 8(a) of the Securities Act of 1933 or until the Registration Statement shall become effective on such date as the Commission, acting pursuant to said Section 8(a), may determine.

The information in this preliminary prospectus is not complete and may be changed. These securities may not be sold until the registration statement filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission is effective. This preliminary prospectus is not an offer to sell nor does it seek an offer to buy these securities in any jurisdiction where the offer or sale is not permitted.

Subject to Completion, dated                     , 2021

PRELIMINARY PROSPECTUS

Shares of Class A Common Stock

This is an initial public offering of shares of Class A common stock of NerdWallet, Inc.

Prior to this offering, there has been no public market for our Class A common stock. It is currently estimated that the initial public offering price will be between $          and $           per share. We have applied to list our Class A common stock on the Nasdaq Stock Market under the symbol “NRDS.”

We are an “emerging growth company” as defined under the federal securities laws and, as such, we have elected to comply with certain reduced reporting requirements for this prospectus and may elect to do so in future filings.

Following this offering, we will have two classes of common stock: Class A common stock and Class B common stock. The rights of the holders of Class A common stock and Class B common stock are identical, except with respect to voting, conversion and transfer rights. Each share of Class A common stock is entitled to one vote. Each share of Class B common stock is entitled to ten votes and is convertible at any time into one share of Class A common stock. The beneficial owners of our Class B common stock are Tim Chen, our co-founder and chief executive officer, and his affiliated trusts. As the holders of our outstanding Class B common stock, Mr. Chen and his affiliated trusts will hold approximately      % of the voting power of our outstanding capital stock immediately following this offering. As a result, we will be a “controlled company” within the meaning of the Nasdaq Listing Rules and Nasdaq corporate governance standards. This ownership means that, for the foreseeable future, holders of our Class A common stock will not have a meaningful voice in our corporate affairs and that the control of our company will be concentrated with Mr. Chen. For additional information, see the sections titled “Risk Factors—Risks Related to this Offering and Ownership of Our Class A Common Stock" and “Management—Controlled Company.”

See the section titled “Risk Factors” beginning on page 13 to read about factors you should consider before buying our Class A common stock.

Neither the Securities and Exchange Commission nor any other regulatory body has approved or disapproved of these securities or passed upon the accuracy or adequacy of this prospectus. Any representation to the contrary is a criminal offense.

	Per Share	Total
Initial public offering price	$	$
Underwriting discount(1)	$	$
Proceeds, before expenses, to us	$	$

_______________

(1)See the section titled “Underwriters” for additional information regarding compensation payable to the underwriters.

To the extent that the underwriters sell more than           shares of Class A common stock, the underwriters have the option to purchase up to an additional            shares of Class A common stock from us at the initial public offering price less the underwriting discount.

The underwriters expect to deliver the shares against payment in New York, New York on                   ,2021.

MORGAN STANLEY KEYBANC CAPITAL MARKETS BOFA SECURITIES BARCLAYS CITIGROUP

TRUIST SECURITIES WILLIAM BLAIR OPPENHEIMER & CO.

Prospectus dated , 2021

GLOSSARY OF TERMS

Adjusted EBITDA	We define Adjusted EBITDA as net income (loss) from continuing operations adjusted to exclude depreciation and amortization, interest expense, net, provision (benefit) for income taxes, and further exclude (1) loss (gain) on impairment and on disposal of assets, (2) remeasurement of the embedded derivative in long-term debt, (3) change in fair value of contingent consideration related to earnouts, (4) deferred compensation related to earnouts, (5) stock-based compensation, and (6) acquisition-related costs.
KYM	Notice Media Ltd., doing business as Know Your Money
Monthly Unique Users (“MUUs”)	We define a Monthly Unique User (“MUU”) as a unique user with at least one session on our platform in a given month as determined by a unique device identifier. MUUs during a time period longer than one month are measured by averaging the MUUs of each month within that period.
SMBs	Small and mid-sized businesses.
Registered User	An individual who has created an account on the NerdWallet platform. The registered user metric is a standalone metric calculated independently from whether an individual accesses our platform in a given period.

TABLE OF CONTENTS

PROSPECTUS

PROSPECTUS SUMMARY	1
RISK FACTORS	13
SPECIAL NOTE REGARDING FORWARD-LOOKING STATEMENTS	41
MARKET AND INDUSTRY DATA	43
USE OF PROCEEDS	44
DIVIDEND POLICY	45
CAPITALIZATION	46
DILUTION	48
MANAGEMENT’S DISCUSSION AND ANALYSIS OF FINANCIAL CONDITION AND RESULTS OF OPERATIONS	50
BUSINESS	80
MANAGEMENT	97

DESCRIPTION OF CAPITAL STOCK	102
SHARES ELIGIBLE FOR FUTURE SALE	109
EXECUTIVE COMPENSATION	111
CERTAIN RELATIONSHIPS AND RELATED PARTY TRANSACTIONS	123
PRINCIPAL STOCKHOLDERS	126
MATERIAL UNITED STATES FEDERAL INCOME TAX CONSEQUENCES TO NON-US HOLDERS	129
UNDERWRITERS	134
LEGAL MATTERS	142
EXPERTS	142
WHERE YOU CAN FIND MORE INFORMATION	142
INDEX TO CONSOLIDATED FINANCIAL STATEMENTS	F-1

Through and including                       , 2021 (the 25th day after the date of this prospectus), all dealers effecting transactions in these securities, whether or not participating in this offering, may be required to deliver a prospectus. This is in addition to a dealer’s obligation to deliver a prospectus when acting as an underwriter and with respect to an unsold allotment or subscription.

We have not authorized anyone to provide you with any information or to make any representations other than those contained in this prospectus or in any free writing prospectuses we have prepared. We and the underwriters take no responsibility for, and can provide no assurance as to the reliability of, any other information that others may give you. We are offering to sell, and seeking offers to buy, shares of our Class A common stock only in jurisdictions where offers and sales are permitted. The information contained in this prospectus is accurate only as of the date of this prospectus, regardless of the time of delivery of this prospectus or of any sale of our Class A common stock. Our business, financial condition, results of operations and future growth prospects may have changed since that date.

For investors outside the United States: Neither we nor any of the underwriters have done anything that would permit this offering or possession or distribution of this prospectus in any jurisdiction where action for that purpose is required, other than in the United States. Persons outside of the United States who come into possession of this prospectus must inform themselves about, and observe any restrictions relating to, the offering of the shares of our Class A common stock and the distribution of this prospectus outside of the United States.

PROSPECTUS SUMMARY

This summary highlights selected information contained elsewhere in this prospectus. This summary does not contain all of the information you should consider before investing in our Class A common stock. You should read this entire prospectus carefully, including the sections titled “Risk Factors,” “Management’s Discussion and Analysis of Financial Condition and Results of Operations” and our consolidated financial statements and the related notes included elsewhere in this prospectus, before making an investment decision. Unless the context otherwise requires, all references in this prospectus to “we,” “us,” “our,” “our company” and “NerdWallet” refer to NerdWallet, Inc. and its consolidated subsidiaries. Unless otherwise indicated, references to our “common stock” refer to our Class A common stock.

NERDWALLET, INC.

Overview

Our mission is to provide clarity for all of life’s financial decisions.

Our vision is a world where everyone makes financial decisions with confidence.

At NerdWallet, we empower consumers—both individual consumers and small and mid-sized businesses (SMBs)—to make smarter financial decisions with confidence via our digital platform. Technology has changed the way consumers manage their financial lives, making them more comfortable with comparing and shopping for financial products online. This change has accelerated with the dramatic growth in companies offering innovative financial products. At NerdWallet, we are leveraging this transformation to democratize access to trustworthy financial guidance—ultimately helping to improve the financial well-being of consumers and the financial services industry as a whole. As the financial services industry becomes more fragmented and complex, our value proposition as a trusted, independent platform for consumers increases.

We deliver guidance to consumers through educational content, tools and calculators, product marketplaces and the NerdWallet app. Our platform delivers unique value across many financial products, including credit cards, mortgages, insurance, SMB products, personal loans, banking, investing and student loans, and has grown to include the UK and Canada. Across every touchpoint, the cornerstone of our platform is our consumers’ trust in the independent, objective and relevant guidance we provide, free of charge.

This trusted guidance has helped us build a large, loyal and well-informed audience of consumers who turn to us as a resource for many of their money questions and to shop for the best financial products for them. We then use machine learning to present personalized options using aggregated and scalable information. As a result, we have become an attractive partner for financial services providers wanting to access high-value consumers—consumers who might not otherwise trust these financial services providers’ recommendations because their guidance is inherently biased toward their own products.

By operating at the intersection of consumers and financial services providers, NerdWallet drives value for both. NerdWallet’s ability to serve consumers and financial services providers hinges on our position as an independent, unbiased resource. The core strength of our platform is the trust that we build with consumers and the tailored and personalized recommendations we deliver via our data science models.

Our mission will guide us over the long-term as we build on our leadership as the place consumers turn first for financial guidance. Already, we have achieved massive, top-of-funnel audience reach with an average of 16 million Monthly Unique Users (MUUs) per month in 2020 and 21 million per month in the first half of 2021. We define a Monthly Unique User (MUU) as a unique user with at least one session in a given month as determined by unique device identifiers. By putting the consumer first, we not only empower consumers to make better financial decisions, but also help our financial services partners more effectively find new customers well-suited to their products.

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Our Platform

Our trusted platform aligns the interests of consumers seeking financial products with the financial services providers that offer these products. We do this by combining our house views with machine learning to help consumers find the right financial product for their needs. A successful initial experience often leads to follow-up activity on our platform and we believe it also leads to higher customer lifetime value for our financial services partners. This alignment of interests, enabled by our unbiased and trusted guidance, benefits consumers, the financial services partners and NerdWallet.

We built NerdWallet with the following key assumptions:

•Everything starts with trust;

•Consumers have an unmet need for unbiased guidance to inform their financial decisions; and

•There is a compelling opportunity to use data to personalize and automate guidance at scale.

Starting with these assumptions, we offer the following benefits to consumers and to our financial services partners.

Benefits of Our Platform for Consumers

Our platform is designed to provide consumers with clarity about their finances, to empower them to make optimal financial decisions and instill them with a sense of confidence in their choices. We accomplish this by:

•Providing Comprehensive Guidance with an Independent, Unbiased Editorial Team. We build trust by offering guidance that is credible, consistent and grounded in our consumer-first values. We establish credibility with financial product reviews and content that cover a myriad of topics.

•Using Simplicity and Transparency to Enable Well-Informed Decisions. We write the articles and build tools to appeal to everyone, ranging from the casual reader to someone looking to understand more complex details on a topic.

•Acting as a Trusted Guide and Navigator, Providing Personalized Guidance. We make it easy for our Registered Users to stay on top of their money by centralizing many of their financial decisions in one place. Consumers can get a holistic view of their finances, and hone in on specific details about their spending and saving patterns across accounts. By codifying insights from our award-winning editorial team, we are able to recommend smart money moves via contextual “nudges.” As a result, we have become a one-stop-shop for consumers to track, manage and plan their financial futures.

•Providing Comprehensive Coverage Across Major Financial Verticals. Today, we have financial services partners in eight financial verticals: credit cards, mortgages, insurance, SMB products, personal loans, banking, investing and student loans. We have a broad range of partners, from the largest financial services providers to disruptive emerging players.

Benefits of Our Platform for our Partners

In order to match consumer demand for high-quality financial products, we partner with leading financial services providers. We attract these financial services partners to our platform by offering:

•Huge Audience and Reach, with an Average of 21 Million Monthly Unique Users Turning to the Nerds Per Month in the First Half of 2021.

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•Access to Consumers Who Are Ready to Transact. Because our expertise and personalized guidance are helpful for consumers at all stages of the financial decision-making process, many of the consumers on our platform are poised to make a transaction after using our platform. For our financial services partners, these consumers who have a better understanding of our partners’ products than the average customer are more likely to successfully match with products offered by financial services partners. We believe that these high-quality matches can result in higher customer lifetime values for our financial services partners.

•Positive Brand Association. We believe that our consumers place a high value on our unbiased guidance, and as such, we believe that our financial services partners greatly benefit from placement on our “Best-of” Awards lists, in our reviews and within other NerdWallet content. As a result, many of our financial services partners use their “Best-of” designation in their own marketing materials.

•Exposure to Consumers Seeking a Broad Range of Financial Products. Given the breadth of our expertise, financial services partners can provide their offerings to consumers that use our platform for multiple facets of their financial well-being.

Our Strengths

We have five core strengths that we believe provide us with a competitive advantage:

•Trusted Platform for Consumer and SMB Financial Guidance. We have maintained an unwavering commitment to providing consumers with free and trusted financial guidance for over a decade, including unbiased recommendations and decision-making tools. Additionally, in the trailing twelve months as of June 30, 2021, approximately 73% of our traffic on NerdWallet came from direct or unpaid traffic sources, further demonstrating the value of our brand, organic marketing efforts and strategy.

•Massive Top-of-the-Funnel Reach. The foundation of our platform is a direct, consumer-first approach, combined with deep domain expertise. This drives superior brand awareness and traffic to our platform.

•Unique Breadth of Financial Offerings Under One Brand. We are a one-stop destination for consumer and SMB financial guidance, covering credit cards, mortgages, insurance, SMB products, personal loans, banking, investing and student loans. This makes it easy for consumers to compare solutions from a wide array of providers across multiple products to meet their diverse needs.

•Platform That Drives and Benefits from Strong Network Effects. As more consumers use our platform and engage with our extensive financial guidance and tools, our consumer and transaction database grows and our product recommendations yield higher success rates. This increases user satisfaction, converting more users into Registered Users and improving repeat user rates. As we apply machine learning to match more high-quality consumers with products and services, our platform becomes increasingly valuable to financial services partners. This, in turn, attracts new partners and new financial products to the platform.

•Founder-Led Management Team Focused on Continual Innovation and Capital Efficiency. Our co-founder and Chief Executive Officer, Tim Chen, started NerdWallet in 2009 to bring clarity to all of life’s financial decisions. We grew to approximately $44 million of revenue in 2014 with no outside equity capital. Today, we continue to maintain a mindset of capital and financial discipline balanced with growth-oriented investing.

Our Growth Strategies

Our key growth strategies include:

•Grow Our Traffic and Increase Engagement. We convert unique users into Registered Users that utilize our consumer decisioning tools and machine learning. We plan to continue to invest in building efficient and scalable technical capabilities to deliver personalized guidance and nudge consumers, at the right time, to take action based on our advice. With better machine learning, we believe our recommendations and contextual nudges will encourage repeat engagement and user registration on our platform.

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•Grow Within Existing and New Verticals. We plan to add capabilities within our existing verticals and expand to new verticals to provide a broad range of tools for consumers. Our land and expand playbook is well defined—provide trusted content and tools to attract organic traffic, then leverage our brand and marketing expertise to accelerate growth in new verticals.

•Expand Geographically. Our success and strong brand in the United States give us a solid foundation to expand into other geographies.

•Broaden and Deepen our Partnerships with Financial Services Partners. We partner with banks, insurance agencies, financial advisors, loan brokers and other financial services providers. We will continue to identify new partners as well as vertical expansion opportunities with existing partners to optimize our platform for consumers.

Our Market Opportunity

We have a substantial market opportunity in the growing global market for financial services. Our comprehensive platform serves a broad set of financial verticals, including credit cards, mortgages, insurance, SMB products, personal loans, banking, investing and student loans.

Our current and primary addressable market opportunity is U.S. financial services digital advertising spend, which is expected to be more than $23 billion in 2021, according to eMarketer.

We believe the services provided by financial advisors, insurance agencies, loan brokers and others will increasingly transition online in the coming years, which will expand our addressable market. As a result of this offline-to-online shift, offline sales commission dollars will be reallocated to better align with the growth and importance of digital channels. As financial services providers modernize their approach to sales commissions and related compensation, we expect that our addressable market opportunity will continue to grow.

Risk Factors Summary

There are a number of risks that you should understand before making an investment decision regarding this offering. These risks are discussed more fully in the section titled “Risk Factors” following this prospectus summary. If any of these risks actually occur, our business, financial condition or results of operations could be adversely affected. In such case, the trading price of our Class A common stock would likely decline, and you may lose all or part of your investment. These risks include, but are not limited to:

•We depend on relationships with our financial services partners, and any adverse changes in their financial strength, tightening of their underwriting standards, or adverse changes to their online marketing strategy would adversely affect our business, financial condition and results of operations.

•If consumers do not find value in our platform or do not like the consumer experience on our platform, the number of matches on our platform may decline, and would harm our business, financial condition and results of operations.

•We are dependent on internet search engines, in particular, Google, to direct traffic to our websites and refer new users to our platform. If search engines’ algorithms, methodologies, and/or policies are modified or enforced in ways we do not anticipate, or if our search results page rankings decline for other reasons, traffic to our platform or user growth or engagement could decline, any of which would harm our business, financial condition and results of operations.

•Failure to maintain our reputation and brand recognition and attract and engage users in a cost-effective manner would harm our business, financial condition and results of operations.

•We may make decisions based on the best interests of our users in order to build long-term trust that may result in us forgoing short-term gains.

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•We compete in a highly competitive and rapidly evolving market with a number of other companies and we face the possibility of new entrants disrupting our market over time.

•Our recent international expansion subjects us to additional costs and risks which could harm our business, revenue and financial results, and our continued international expansion may be unsuccessful.

•We are making substantial investments in new product offerings and technologies, and expect to increase such investments in the future. These new efforts are inherently risky, and we may never realize any expected benefits from them.

•Our financial performance is dependent on our ability to successfully refer users to financial services partners, and these partners are not precluded from offering products and services outside of our platform.

•Adverse conditions in the consumer finance markets, or poor or uncertain macroeconomic conditions, could harm our business, financial condition and results of operations.

•Trends in the credit card industry, as well as the impact of the general economy on the ability of users to qualify for credit cards, could harm our business, financial condition and results of operations.

•Our business is subject to a variety of U.S. financial regulations, many of which are overlapping, ambiguous and still developing, which could subject us to claims or otherwise harm our business.

•Security incidents, or real or perceived errors, failures or bugs in our systems and platform could impair our operations, compromise our confidential information or our users’ personal information, damage our reputation and brand, and harm our business and operating results.

•The dual class structure of our common stock has the effect of concentrating voting control with our Co-founder and CEO, Tim Chen, which will limit or preclude your ability to influence corporate matters.

Corporate Information

We were incorporated under the laws of the state of Delaware in December 2011. Our principal executive offices are located at 875 Stevenson St, San Francisco, CA 94103. Our telephone number is (415) 549-8913. Our website address is www.nerdwallet.com. Information contained on, or that can be accessed through, our website is not incorporated by reference into this prospectus, and you should not consider information on our website to be part of this prospectus.

The NerdWallet, Inc. design logo, the NERDWALLET service mark, “NerdWallet, Inc.,” and our other registered or common law trademarks, service marks, or trade names appearing in this prospectus are the property of NerdWallet, Inc. Other trade names, trademarks and service marks used in this prospectus are the property of their respective owners. Solely for convenience, trademarks and trade names referred to in this prospectus may appear without the ® or TM symbols.

Controlled Company Status

We will be a “controlled company” within the meaning of the Nasdaq Listing Rules and its corporate governance requirements. Under these rules, a company for which more than 50% of the voting power for the election of directors is held by an individual, group, or another company is a “controlled company” and may elect not to comply with certain of the Nasdaq Listing Rules’ corporate governance requirements, including: (i) the requirement that a majority of our board of directors consist of “independent directors” as defined under the Nasdaq Listing Rules; (ii) the requirement that we have a compensation committee that is composed entirely of independent directors; and (iii) the requirement that we have a nominating and corporate governance committee that is composed entirely of independent directors. We intend to use these exemptions upon our listing. As a result, upon completion of this offering, we do not intend to have a compensation committee composed entirely of independent directors, nor do we intend to have a nominating and corporate governance committee or an independent nominating function. Instead, our full board of directors will be directly responsible for nominating members of our board. Accordingly,

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in the future our stockholders may not have the same protections afforded to stockholders of companies that are subject to all of the Nasdaq Listing Rules’ corporate governance requirements.

Implications of Being an Emerging Growth Company

We qualify as an “emerging growth company” as defined in the Jumpstart Our Business Startups Act of 2012, or the JOBS Act. An emerging growth company may take advantage of specified reduced reporting and other requirements that are otherwise applicable generally to public companies. These provisions include:

•we are required to have only two years of audited financial statements and only two years of related selected financial data and Management’s Discussion and Analysis of Financial Condition and Results of Operations disclosure;

•we are exempt from the requirement that critical audit matters be discussed in our independent auditor’s reports on our audited financial statements or any other requirements that may be adopted by the Public Company Accounting Oversight Board (the “PCAOB”) unless the SEC determines that the application of such requirements to emerging growth companies is in the public interest;

•we are exempt from the provisions of Section 404(b) of the Sarbanes-Oxley Act of 2002 (the “Sarbanes-Oxley Act”) requiring that our independent registered public accounting firm provide an attestation report on the effectiveness of its internal control over financial reporting;

•we are exempt from the “say on pay,” “say on frequency,” and “say on golden parachute” advisory vote requirements of the Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act (the “Dodd-Frank Act”); and

•we are exempt from certain disclosure requirements of the Dodd-Frank Act relating to compensation of our executive officers and are permitted to omit the detailed compensation discussion and analysis from proxy statements and reports filed under the Securities Exchange Act of 1934, as amended (the “Exchange Act”).

We may take advantage of these provisions until the last day of our fiscal year following the fifth anniversary of the completion of this offering or such earlier time that we are no longer an emerging growth company. We would cease to be an emerging growth company upon the earliest of: (i) the last day of the first fiscal year in which our annual gross revenues are $1.07 billion or more; (ii) the date on which we have, during the previous three-year period, issued more than $1 billion in non-convertible debt securities; or (iii) the date on which we are deemed to be a “large accelerated filer,” which will occur as of the end of any fiscal year in which we (x) have an aggregate market value of our common stock held by non-affiliates of $700 million or more as of the last business day of our most recently completed second fiscal quarter, (y) have been required to file annual and quarterly reports under the Exchange Act, for a period of at least 12 months and (z) have filed at least one annual report pursuant to the Exchange Act.

Further, pursuant to Section 107 of the JOBS Act, as an emerging growth company, we have elected to take advantage of the extended transition period for complying with certain new or revised accounting standards until those standards would otherwise apply to private companies. As a result, our operating results and financial statements may not be comparable to the operating results and financial statements of other companies who have adopted the new or revised accounting standards. It is possible that some investors will find our Class A common stock less attractive as a result, which may result in a less active trading market for our Class A common stock and higher volatility in our stock price.

For risks related to our status as an emerging growth company, see the section titled “Risk Factors—Risks Related to this Offering and Ownership of Our Class A Common Stock”.

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THE OFFERING

Class A common stock offered by us	shares
Class A common stock to be outstanding after this offering	shares
Class B common stock to be outstanding after this offering	shares
Total Class A common stock and Class B common stock to be outstanding after this offering	shares
Underwriters’ option to purchase additional shares of Class A common stock	shares
Voting rights	The holders of Class A common stock are entitled to one vote per share. The holders of Class B common stock are entitled to ten votes per share. The holders of our Class A common stock and Class B common stock will generally vote together as a single class on all matters submitted to a vote of our stockholders unless otherwise required by Delaware law or our amended and restated certificate of incorporation. See the section titled “Description of Capital Stock” for additional information.
Concentration of Voting Rights	The holders of our outstanding Class B common stock, Tim Chen and his affiliated entities, will initially hold approximately         % of the voting power of our outstanding capital stock following this offering and will have the ability to control the outcome of matters submitted to our stockholders for approval, including the election of our directors and the approval of any change in control transaction. See the sections titled “Principal Stockholders”, “Description of Capital Stock” and "Management — Controlled Company." Each share of Class B common stock may be converted into one share of Class A common stock at the option of the holder thereof, and will be converted into one share of Class A common stock upon transfer thereof, subject to certain exceptions. All shares of Class B common stock will automatically convert into shares of Class A common stock (1) nine months following the death or permanent incapacity of Tim Chen, our Co-founder and Chief Executive Officer, and (2) the first trading day that falls nine months after the date on which there are outstanding less than 10,000,000 shares of Class B common stock (subject to adjustment for stock splits, stock dividends, stock combinations and the like).

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Use of proceeds

We estimate that our net proceeds from the sale of our Class A common stock that we are offering will be approximately $                  million (or approximately $                  million if the underwriters exercise their option to purchase additional shares in full), assuming an initial public offering price of $               per share, the midpoint of the estimated price range set forth on the cover page of this prospectus, and after deducting underwriting discounts and commissions and estimated offering expenses. We intend to use the net proceeds we receive from this offering for general corporate purposes, including working capital, operating expenses and capital expenditures. In addition, we intend to use approximately $29.0 million of the net proceeds we receive from this offering to repay all outstanding principal amounts and accrued interest under certain promissory notes held by family trusts affiliated with Jacob Gibson, one of our Co-founders. We may also use a portion of the net proceeds for acquisitions and/or strategic investments in complementary businesses, products, services or technologies, although we do not currently have any plans or commitments for any such acquisitions or investments. See the section titled “Use of Proceeds” for additional information.

Proposed trading symbol

“NRDS”

The number of shares of our Class A common stock that will be outstanding after this offering is based on 51,002,876 shares of our Class A common stock outstanding as of June 30, 2021 (including shares of our redeemable convertible preferred stock on an as-converted basis, assuming a 1:1 conversion) and 63,371,308 shares of our Class B common stock outstanding as of June 30, 2021, and excludes:

•14,907,678 shares of our Class A common stock issuable upon the exercise of options to purchase shares of our Class A common stock outstanding as of June 30, 2021, with a weighted average exercise price of $4.18 per share;

•5,542,675 shares of our Class A common stock issuable upon the vesting of RSUs outstanding as of June 30, 2021;

•                   shares of our Class A common stock reserved for future issuance under our equity compensation plans, consisting of:

•2,244,628 shares of our Class A common stock reserved for future issuance under our 2012 Equity Incentive Plan, or the 2012 Plan, as of June 30, 2021;

•           shares of our Class A common stock reserved for future issuance under the 2021 Equity Incentive Plan, or the 2021 Plan, which includes an annual evergreen increase and will become effective in connection with this offering; and

•           shares of our Class A common stock reserved for future issuance under our 2021 Employee Stock Purchase Plan, or the ESPP, which includes an annual evergreen increase and will become effective in connection with this offering.

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Unless otherwise indicated, the information in this prospectus assumes:

•an initial public offering price of $          per share, which is the midpoint of the estimated offering price range set forth on the cover page of this prospectus;

•the filing and effectiveness of our amended and restated certificate of incorporation and the effectiveness of our amended and restated bylaws, each of which will occur immediately prior to the completion of this offering;

•a 1-for- reverse stock split of our capital stock to be effected prior to the closing of this offering;

•the automatic conversion of all outstanding shares of our redeemable convertible preferred stock into              shares of our Class A common stock immediately prior to the completion of this offering;

•the reclassification of all 63,371,308 outstanding shares of our Class F common stock into an equal number of shares of our Class B common stock;

•no exercise of the outstanding options described above; and

•no exercise of the underwriters’ option to purchase additional shares of Class A common stock.

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SUMMARY CONSOLIDATED FINANCIAL DATA

The following tables summarize our consolidated financial and other data. The summary consolidated statements of operations data for the years ended December 31, 2019 and 2020 have been derived from our audited consolidated financial statements included elsewhere in this prospectus. The summary consolidated statements of operations data for the six months ended June 30, 2020 and 2021 and the consolidated balance sheet data as of June 30, 2021 have been derived from our unaudited interim consolidated financial statements included elsewhere in this prospectus. In management’s opinion, the unaudited interim consolidated financial statements have been prepared on the same basis as the annual financial statements and reflect all adjustments necessary to state fairly our financial position as of June 30, 2021 and our results of operations and cash flows for the six months ended June 30, 2020 and 2021. Our historical results are not necessarily indicative of the results that may be expected in the future, and our results for the six months ended June 30, 2021 are not necessarily indicative of the results expected for the full year ending December 31, 2021 or any future period. You should read the following summary consolidated financial and other data together with the section titled “Management’s Discussion and Analysis of Financial Condition and Results of Operations” and our consolidated financial statements and related notes included elsewhere in this prospectus. The summary consolidated financial and other data are not intended to replace, and are qualified in their entirety by, our consolidated financial statements and related notes included elsewhere in this prospectus.

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Consolidated Statements of Operations Data:

	Year Ended December 31,				Six Months Ended June 30,
	2019		2020		2020		2021
	(in millions, except per share amounts)
Revenue	$	228.3	$	245.3	$	137.3	$	181.6
Costs and expenses:
Cost of revenue	16.1		21.3		10.4		13.8
Research and development (1)	46.0		50.9		24.5		27.0
Sales and marketing (1)	115.6		144.0		87.5		151.2
General and administrative (1)	22.2		28.0		13.5		17.8
Change in fair value of contingent considerations related to earnouts	—		(0.8)		—		7.7
Total costs and expenses	199.9		243.4		135.9		217.5
Income (loss) from operations	28.4		1.9		1.4		(35.9)
Other income (expense):
Interest income	1.1		0.2		0.2		—
Interest expense	(1.1)		(1.1)		(0.5)		(0.7)
Other gains (losses), net	(0.5)		(0.1)		—		1.2
Total other income (expense)	(0.5)		(1.0)		(0.3)		0.5
Income (loss) before income taxes	27.9		0.9		1.1		(35.4)
Income tax provision (benefit)	3.7		(4.4)		(2.0)		(8.6)
Net income (loss)	$	24.2	$	5.3	$	3.1	$	(26.8)
NET INCOME (LOSS) PER SHARE ATTRIBUTABLE TO COMMON STOCKHOLDERS
Basic	$	0.29	$	0.06	$	0.04	$	(0.27)
Diluted	$	0.22	$	0.05	$	0.03	$	(0.27)
WEIGHTED-AVERAGE SHARES USED IN COMPUTING NET INCOME (LOSS) PER SHARE ATTRIBUTABLE TO COMMON STOCKHOLDERS
Class A:
Basic	15.7		19.9		17.5		33.9
Diluted	40.1		44.0		42.0		33.9
Class F:
Basic	68.6		68.5		68.6		63.9
Diluted	68.6		68.5		68.6		63.9
PRO FORMA NET INCOME (LOSS) PER SHARE ATTRIBUTABLE TO COMMON STOCKHOLDERS
Basic
Diluted
WEIGHTED-AVERAGE SHARES USED IN COMPUTING PRO FORMA NET INCOME (LOSS) PER SHARE ATTRIBUTABLE TO COMMON STOCKHOLDERS
Basic
Diluted

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_____________

(1)Includes stock-based compensation expense as follows:

	Year Ended December 31,				Six Months Ended June 30,
	2019		2020		2020		2021
	(in millions)
Research and development expense	$	2.2	$	3.1	$	1.4	$	2.4
Sales and marketing expense	1.2		1.9		0.8		2.3
General and administrative expense	1.6		1.4		0.8		1.8
Total stock-based compensation expense	$	5.0	$	6.4	$	3.0	$	6.5

Consolidated Balance Sheet Data

	June 30, 2021		Pro Forma June 30, 2021
	(in millions)
Cash and cash equivalents	$	41.1
Working capital (2)	45.6
Total assets	242.8
Total liabilities	121.6
Redeemable convertible preferred stock	66.7
Additional paid-in capital	112.5
Accumulated deficit	(58.8)
Total stockholders’ equity	54.5

(2)We define working capital as current assets less current liabilities. See our consolidated financial statements and related notes included elsewhere in this prospectus for further details regarding our current assets and current liabilities.

Key Operating Metric and Non-GAAP Financial Measure

In addition to the measures presented in our consolidated financial statements, we use the following key operating metric and non-GAAP measure to help us evaluate our business, identify trends affecting our business, formulate business plans, and make strategic decisions.

	Year Ended December 31,				Six Months Ended June 30,
	2019		2020		2020		2021
	(in millions)
Monthly Unique Users	13		16		17		21
Adjusted EBITDA	$	44.1	$	24.4	$	10.8	$	(7.6)

For additional information about the key operating metric and non-GAAP financial measure and reconciliations of the non-GAAP financial measure to the most directly comparable financial measure stated in accordance with generally accepted accounting principles in the United States, or GAAP, see the section titled “Management’s Discussion and Analysis of Financial Condition and Results of Operations—Key Operating Metric and Non-GAAP Financial Measure.”

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RISK FACTORS

Investing in our Class A common stock involves a high degree of risk. You should carefully consider the following risks, together with all of the other information contained in this prospectus, before deciding to invest in our Class A common stock. Our business, financial condition, results of operations or prospects could be materially and adversely affected by any of these risks or uncertainties. In that case, the trading price of our Class A common stock could decline, and you may lose all or part of your investment.

Risks Related to Our Business

We depend on relationships with our financial services partners, and any adverse changes in their financial strength, tightening of their underwriting standards or adverse changes to their online marketing strategy would adversely affect our business, financial condition and results of operations.

Our success depends on the financial strength and underwriting standards of credit card issuers, lenders, insurers and other participants on our platform. If our financial services partners experience financial difficulties, they may cease participating on our platform or tighten underwriting standards, which would result in fewer opportunities for us to earn fees from matching consumers with them. In times of financial difficulty, financial services providers may also fail to pay fees when due or drop the quality of their services to consumers. Our partners could also change their online marketing strategies or implement cost-reduction initiatives that decrease spending through our platform. The occurrence of one or more of these events, alone or in combination, with a significant number of financial services partners could harm our business, financial condition and results of operations.

If consumers do not find value in our platform or do not like the consumer experience on our platform, the number of matches on our platform may decline, and would harm our business, financial condition and results of operations.

We believe that the growth of our business and revenue depends upon our ability to engage our existing users and to add new users in our current as well as new markets. If we lose users or user engagement diminishes, our business and financial condition will be negatively impacted. If we fail to remain competitive on customer experience, editorial articles and product offerings, our ability to grow our business may also be adversely affected.

While a key part of our business strategy is to engage users in our existing markets, we also intend to expand our operations into new markets. In doing so, we may incur losses or otherwise fail to enter new markets successfully. Our expansion into new markets may place us in unfamiliar competitive environments and involve various risks, including competition, government regulation, the need to invest significant resources and the possibility that returns on such investments will not be achieved for several years or at all. There are many factors that could negatively affect our ability to grow our user base and engagement, including if:

•we lose users to new market entrants and/or existing competitors;

•we do not obtain regulatory approvals necessary for expansion into new verticals, geographies or to launch new product features and tools;

•we fail to effectively use search engines, social media platforms, digital app stores, content-based online advertising, and other online sources for generating traffic to our platform;

•our platform experiences disruptions or outages;

•we suffer reputational harm to our brand including from negative publicity, whether accurate or inaccurate;

•we fail to expand geographically;

•we fail to offer new and competitive products, to provide effective updates to our existing products or to keep pace with technological improvements in our industry;

•technical or other problems frustrate the user experience;

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•we are unable to address user concerns regarding the content, privacy, and security of our digital platform;

•we are unable to continue to innovate and improve our platform by generating compelling content and tools;

•existing or new financial services providers use incentives to directly cross-sell their products, reducing consumer benefits of using multiple providers; or

•we are unable to successfully launch new verticals.

Our inability to overcome these challenges could impair our ability to engage users, and could harm our business, operating results and financial condition.

We are dependent on internet search engines, in particular, Google, to direct traffic to our websites and refer new users to our platform. If search engines’ algorithms, methodologies, and/or policies are modified or enforced in ways we do not anticipate, or if our search results page rankings decline for other reasons, traffic to our platform or user growth or engagement could decline, any of which would harm our business, financial condition and results of operations.

We are dependent on internet search engines, primarily Google, to direct traffic to our platform, including our website. Search engines, such as Google, may modify their search algorithms and policies or enforce those policies in ways that are detrimental to us, and without prior notice to us. If that occurs, we may experience significant declines in the organic search ranking of our search results, leading to a decrease in traffic to our platform. We have experienced declines in traffic and user growth as a result of these changes in the past, and anticipate fluctuations as a result of such actions in the future.

In addition, Google may take action against websites for behavior that it believes unfairly influences search results. Google does not publish guidelines explaining the types of behavior that may trigger an action. For example, in 2017, Google took action against us which temporarily resulted in lower search rankings and decreased traffic to our website. Our ability to appeal these actions is limited, and we may not be able to revise our content strategies to recover the loss in domain authority, page rankings, traffic or user growth resulting from such actions. Any significant reduction in the number of users directed to our website or mobile application from search engines would harm our business, revenue and financial results.

Failure to maintain our reputation and brand recognition and attract and engage users in a cost-effective manner would harm our business, financial condition and results of operations.

In order to attract consumers to our platform, convert these consumers into matches with financial services partners and generate repeat visits, we must market our platform and maintain consumer trust. Promoting and maintaining our brand requires the expenditure of considerable money and resources for online and offline marketing and advertising, the continued provision of high-quality products and services that meet user needs, the ability to maintain consumers’ trust, and the ability to successfully differentiate our brand, products and services from those of our competitors.

Brand recognition is a key differentiating factor between us and our competitors. We believe that continuing to build and maintain the recognition of our brand is important to achieving increased demand for the products we provide. Accordingly, we have spent, and expect to continue to spend, significant amounts on, and devote significant resources to, branding, advertising and other marketing initiatives, which may not be successful or cost-effective. Our brand promotion activities may not generate consumer awareness or yield increased revenue, and even if they do, any increased revenue may not offset the expenses we incur in building our brand.

The strength of our brand may be harmed by adverse publicity from many sources. Adverse publicity and the potential corresponding impact on our reputation may be accelerated and amplified by the widespread use of social media platforms. Furthermore, adverse publicity, from legal proceedings against us or our business, including governmental proceedings and consumer class action or other litigation, or the disclosure of information from security breaches or other incidents, could negatively impact our reputation and our brand, which could materially

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and adversely affect our business and financial condition and results of operations. In addition, the actions of our third-party marketing partners who engage in advertising on our behalf could negatively impact our reputation and our various brands.

The failure of our business to maintain or enhance its reputation and brand recognition and attract and retain consumers in a cost-effective manner could materially and adversely affect our business, financial condition and results of operations.

We may make decisions based on the best interests of our users in order to build long-term trust that may result in us forgoing short-term gains.

One of our fundamental values is to build our business by making decisions based upon the best interests of our users, which we believe has been essential to our success in building user trust in our platform and increasing our user growth rate and engagement. We believe this best serves the long-term interests of our company and our stockholders. In the past, we have forgone, and we may in the future continue to forgo, certain expansion or short-term revenue opportunities that we do not believe are in the best interests of our platform and our users, even if such decisions adversely affect our results of operations in the short term. For example, we do not use impression-based advertising on our platform (i.e., where payment is based on digital views or engagement); we publish editorial content on topics that do not generate revenue for us, and our editorial team maintains editorial independence from our business teams. Reviews and ratings of financial services products are neither influenced by whether a product is offered on our platform nor by the pricing we may have with a financial services partner. However, this strategy of focusing on building long-term trust instead of short-term revenue opportunities may not result in the long-term benefits that we expect, in which case our user traffic and engagement, business, financial condition and results of operations could be harmed.

We compete in a highly competitive and rapidly evolving market with a number of other companies and we face the possibility of new entrants disrupting our market over time.

We currently compete with a number of companies that market financial services online, as well as with more traditional sources of financial information, and with financial institutions offering their products directly, and we expect that competition will intensify. Our online competitors include marketplaces such as Bankrate, Credit Karma, LendingTree, and Zillow, and we also face direct or indirect competition from providers of consumer personal finance guidance and online search engines. Some of these existing competitors may have more capital or complementary products or services than we do, and they may leverage their greater capital or diversification in a manner that adversely affects our competitive position, including by making strategic acquisitions. In addition, we also face the possibility of new competitors. New competitors may enter the market and may be able to innovate and bring products and services to market faster, or anticipate and meet consumer or financial services partner demand before we do. Other newcomers, including major search engines and content aggregators, may be able to leverage their existing products and services or access to data to our disadvantage. We may be forced to expend significant resources to remain competitive with current and potential competitors. If any of our competitors are more successful than we are at attracting and engaging users or financial services partners, our business, financial condition and results of operations could be materially and adversely affected.

Our recent international expansion subjects us to additional costs and risks which could harm our business, revenue and financial results, and our continued international expansion may be unsuccessful.

Historically, all of our business has been generated in the United States and we have little experience operating internationally. In 2020, we entered the United Kingdom (UK) market with our acquisition of Notice Media Ltd. (doing business as Know Your Money), an online provider of financial guidance and tools based in the UK. We entered the Canadian market organically in the third quarter of 2021. We believe our growth strategy depends, in part, on our continued international expansion. We continue to adapt to and develop strategies to address

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international markets, but there is no guarantee that such efforts will be successful. Our international operations and further international expansion are subject to a number of difficulties and risks, including:

•challenges inherent to efficiently recruiting and retaining talented and capable employees in foreign countries and maintaining our company culture and employee programs across all of our offices, including those resulting from cultural differences and geographic dispersion;

•required compliance with existing and changing foreign regulatory requirements and laws that are or may be applicable to our business in the future, such as the European Union’s General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) and other data privacy requirements; labor and employment regulations; anti-competition regulations; and the UK Bribery Act of 2010 and other anti-corruption laws;

•required compliance with U.S. laws such as the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act, and other U.S. federal laws and regulations established by the office of Foreign Asset Control and other governmental entities;

•difficulties identifying, obtaining, and maintaining the government approvals or licensures required to conduct our business in foreign markets;

•financial risks, such as longer payment cycles, difficulty collecting accounts receivable, and the impact of local and regional financial crises on demand and payment for our products;

•difficulties obtaining intellectual property protection, enforcing our intellectual property rights, and defending against third-party intellectual property infringement claims;

•challenges successfully addressing novel sources of competition, including in the context of foreign laws and business practices that may favor local companies;

•difficulties managing fluctuations in currency exchange rates and foreign exchange controls; and

•potentially adverse tax consequences, including multiple and possibly overlapping tax regimes, the complexities of foreign value-added tax systems, and changes in tax rates.

As we continue to expand our international operations, our success will depend in large part on our ability to anticipate and effectively manage these risks, which in turn will require significant management attention and financial resources. If we are unable to successfully manage any of these risks, our international operations and any future international expansion could be compromised, which could harm our business, financial condition and results of operations. In addition, certain international markets are subject to significant political and economic uncertainty, including, for example, the UK, owing to the uncertain consequences of its withdrawal from the European Union (EU). Significant political and economic developments in international markets where we intend to operate, or the perception that any of them could occur, creates further challenges for operating in these markets.

We are making substantial investments in new product offerings and technologies, and expect to increase such investments in the future. These efforts are inherently risky, and we may never realize any expected benefits from them.

We have made substantial investments to develop new product offerings and technologies, including our mobile application, personal finance management tools, our data infrastructure and our recommendation engine, and we intend to continue investing significant resources in developing new technologies, tools, features, services, products and product offerings. We expect to increase our investments in these new initiatives in the near term which may result in lower margins. Additionally, following our acquisition of Fundera, we plan to invest significant resources to integrate, develop and expand new offerings and technologies in the markets in which Fundera operates. We also expect to spend substantial amounts as we seek to grow the verticals in which we operate our platform and increase our scale, and to expand our offerings to additional geographic markets. If we do not spend our development budget efficiently or effectively on commercially successful and innovative technologies, we may not realize the expected benefits of our strategy. Our new initiatives also have a high degree of risk, as each involves strategies, technologies and regulatory requirements with which we have limited or no prior development or operating experience. There can be no assurance that consumer demand for such initiatives will exist or be sustained at the levels that we anticipate,

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or that any of these initiatives will gain sufficient traction or market acceptance to generate sufficient revenue to offset any new expenses or liabilities associated with these new investments. It is also possible that product offerings developed by others will render our product offerings noncompetitive or obsolete. Further, our development efforts with respect to new product offerings and technologies could distract management from current operations, and will divert capital and other resources from our more established product offerings and technologies. Even if we are successful in developing new product offerings or technologies, regulatory authorities may subject us to new rules or restrictions in response to our innovations that could increase our expenses or prevent us from successfully commercializing new product offerings or technologies. If we do not realize the expected benefits of our investments, our business, financial condition and operating results may be harmed.

Our financial performance is dependent on our ability to successfully refer users to financial services partners, and these partners are not precluded from offering products and services outside of our platform.

Our ability to earn revenue is dependent on referring users of our site to our financial services partners and our users seeking to transact with such partners. However, having obtained the information they were looking for in our editorial articles, tools and other product offerings, users may leave our platform and transact directly with a financial services partner or with another party. When users transact directly with financial services partners or another party, we are not able to earn revenue on these users’ transactions, limiting our ability to realize a return on our investments in product features and editorial articles which could harm our business, revenue and financial results.

Because we do not have exclusive relationships with our financial services partners, users may obtain financial products without having to use our platform. Our financial services partners may offer and market their products to prospective customers online directly through their own marketing campaigns or via other methods of distribution, including through our competitors. If a significant number of users seek financial products and services directly from our financial services partners or from our online competitors, as opposed to through our platform, our business, financial condition and results of operations could be adversely affected.

If we are unable to maintain the quality of our products, expand our product offerings or continue technological innovation and improvements, our prospects for future growth may be harmed.

We believe our success depends on users’ finding our product offerings to be of value to them. Our ability to attract and engage users depends, in part, on our ability to successfully expand our product offerings and editorial articles. For example, we initially built our content and began matching consumers with financial services providers in the credit card market, we later expanded into loan products and have continued to add other verticals since then. To penetrate new verticals, we will need to develop a deep understanding of those new markets and the associated business challenges faced by participants in them. Developing this level of understanding may require substantial investments of time and resources, and we may not be successful. In addition to the need for substantial resources, government regulation could limit our ability to introduce new product offerings. If we fail to penetrate new verticals successfully, our revenue may grow at a slower rate than we anticipate, and our business, financial condition and results of operations could be materially adversely affected. We must also continue to innovate and improve on our technology and product offerings in order to continue future growth and successfully compete with other companies in our markets, or our brand and future growth could be materially adversely affected.

In addition, the market for financial services products is rapidly evolving, fragmented and highly competitive. Competition in this market has intensified, and we expect this trend to continue as the list of financial services providers grows. There are many established and emerging technology centric financial services providers providing a multitude of products to consumers across all financial verticals. If we fail to successfully anticipate and identify new trends, products and emerging financial services providers, and provide up-to-date educational content, tools and other relevant resources timely, our ability to engage consumers and financial services providers may suffer, which would harm our business, financial condition and results of operations.

Our current lack of geographic diversity exposes us to risk.

Our operations are geographically limited and primarily dependent upon consumers in the United States and economic conditions in the U.S. As a result of this geographical concentration, we are more vulnerable to downturns

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or other conditions that affect the U.S. economy. Any downturn or other adverse conditions in the U.S. economy could harm our business and financial results.

In connection with our acquisition of Know Your Money (KYM), we entered the UK market, and we believe our growth strategy depends, in part, on our continued international expansion. As we expand in the UK and internationally, we will be vulnerable to economic downturns or other conditions that affect the economy in the UK and in other countries where we expand. However, until our international operations expand significantly, we will continue to be primarily dependent on U.S. consumers and U.S. economic conditions.

We have less experience operating in some of the newer market verticals to which we have expanded.

We have expanded to new verticals over the last several years, including SMB products and insurance products. We do not have as much experience with these newer verticals as we do with the other more established verticals on our platform. Accordingly, newer verticals may be subject to greater risks than the more established verticals on our platform.

The success of our entry into new verticals will depend on a number of factors, including:

•Implementing in a cost effective manner product features expected by consumers and financial services providers;

•Market acceptance of an intermediary by consumers and financial services providers;

•Offerings by current and future competitors;

•Our ability to attract and retain management and other skilled personnel;

•Our ability to collect amounts owed to us from our financial services partners;

•Our ability to develop successful and cost-effective marketing campaigns; and

•Our ability to timely adjust marketing expenditures in relation to changes in demand for the underlying products and services offered by our financial services partners in these newer verticals.

Our results of operations may suffer if we fail to successfully anticipate and manage these issues associated with expansion into new verticals.

We rely on the data provided to us by users and third parties to operate and improve our product offerings, and if we are unable to maintain and grow the use of such data, we may be unable to provide users with a platform experience that is relevant and effective, which would harm our business, financial condition and results of operations.

We analyze first-party data from users, third-party data from financial account aggregators and credit reports to understand our users’ unique financial situations. The large amount of information we use in operating and improving our platform is critical to the experience we provide for our users. If we are unable to maintain, grow and efficiently handle the data provided to us, the value that we provide to consumers and the quality of matches with financial services partners may be limited. In addition, if we do not maintain the quality, accuracy and timeliness of this information, user experience may suffer, which would harm our business, financial condition and results of operations.

We track certain operational metrics, which are subject to inherent challenges in measurement, and real or perceived inaccuracies in such metrics may harm our reputation and adversely affect our stock price, business, results of operations, and financial condition.

We track certain operational metrics, including metrics such as Monthly Unique Users (MUUs), which may differ from estimates or similar metrics published by third parties due to differences in sources, methodologies, or the assumptions on which we rely. Our internal systems and tools are subject to a number of limitations, and our methodologies for tracking these metrics may change over time, which could result in unexpected changes to our

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metrics, including the metrics we publicly disclose. If the internal systems and tools we use to track these metrics undercount or overcount or contain algorithmic or other technical errors, the data we report may not be accurate. While these numbers are based on what we believe to be reasonable estimates of our metrics for the applicable period of measurement, there are inherent challenges in measuring how our platform is used. For example, the number of MUUs on our platform is based on activity associated with a unique device identifier during a certain time period. Certain individuals may have more than one device and therefore may be counted more than once in our count of Monthly Unique Users. Limitations or errors with respect to how we measure data or with respect to the data that we measure may affect our understanding of certain details of our business, which could affect our long-term strategies. If our operational metrics are not accurate representations of our business, or if investors do not perceive these metrics to be accurate, or if we discover material inaccuracies with respect to these figures, our reputation may be significantly harmed, our stock price could decline, we may be subject to stockholder litigation, and our business, financial results and results of operations could be adversely affected.

We may not be able to manage our growth effectively.

Our growth has placed, and may continue to place, significant demands on our management and our operational and financial resources. For example, we grew our employee base from 397 as of December 31, 2019 to 587 as of December 31, 2020 both organically and through our acquisitions. We have hired and expect to continue hiring additional personnel to support our rapid growth. Our organizational structure is becoming more complex as we add staff, and we will need to enhance our operational, financial and management controls as well as our reporting systems and procedures as we transition from being a private company to a public company. We will require significant capital expenditures and the allocation of valuable management resources to grow and change in these areas without undermining our corporate culture of rapid innovation, teamwork and attention to the user experience.

Risks Related to Our Industry and the Consumer Finance Economy

Adverse conditions in the consumer finance markets, or poor or uncertain macroeconomic conditions, could harm our business, financial condition and results of operations.

Our business is dependent on the consumer finance markets and the demand for the products offered by our financial services partners. Both our financial services partners and users may be affected by prevailing economic, political, market, health and social events or conditions. A decline in these conditions could impact our users, and could reduce their demand for credit cards, mortgage loans, personal loans, and other financial service products, which could ultimately impact our revenues. Similarly, during such conditions our financial services partners may tighten underwriting standards, implement cost-reduction initiatives that reduce or eliminate marketing budgets and decrease spending on our platform. Any of these events could adversely affect our business, financial condition and results of operations.

Trends in the credit card industry, as well as the impact of the general economy on the ability of users to qualify for credit cards, could harm our business, financial condition and results of operations.

The credit card market is an important part of our business. Our participation in this market is subject to particular risks, each of which could negatively affect our traffic and results of operations:

•Adverse conditions in the economy may affect credit card issuers and their willingness to issue new credit which would negatively affect revenue. For example, beginning in the Spring of 2020 some credit card issuers tightened underwriting standards and reduced marketing budgets due to deteriorating economic conditions and rising unemployment caused by the COVID-19 pandemic and associated shelter-in-place orders;

•Credit losses among credit card issuers may increase beyond normal and budgeted levels which could cause a reduction in credit card issuers’ ability to extend credit;

•Interest rate increases may make balance transfer cards less profitable for issuers, decreasing the fees we earn from matching users with such cards;

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•Credit card issuers may be unwilling to partner with us;

•Lower approval rates by credit card issuers due to tighter underwriting or other factors;

•Decreases in consumer interest in credit card products;

•Increased competition;

•If we are unable to provide competitive service to credit card issuers and to consumers using our platform; and

•If we are unable to develop new product offerings and enhance existing ones.

Changes in the loan markets could harm our business, financial condition and results of operations.

The loan market, including student loans, mortgages and personal loans, is an important part of our business. Fluctuations and constraints in the loan markets in the past have harmed, and may in the future, harm our business, financial condition and results of operations. Economic factors such as increased interest rates, slow economic growth or recessionary conditions, the pace of home price appreciation or the lack of it, changes in household debt levels, and increased unemployment or stagnant or declining wages can affect the loan markets. National or global events, including but not limited to the COVID-19 pandemic, can also affect such macroeconomic conditions. Such macroeconomic factors can affect the number of loan applications and loan approval rates which can adversely affect our business. For example, increases in interest rates adversely affect the ability of our mortgage partners to close loans due to lower consumer demand, and adverse economic trends may limit the ability of our mortgage partners to offer home loans other than low-margin conforming loans. Decreased consumer demand for mortgage refinancing typically leads to decreased traffic to our platform and results in higher associated marketing costs with generating traffic. Conversely, during periods with decreased interest rates, mortgage partners have less incentive to use our platform due to high consumer demand or in the case of sudden increases in consumer demand, our financial services providers may lack the ability to support such increases in volume. For example, in the Spring and Summer of 2020 the rapid surge in demand for mortgage refinancing due to low interest rates reached such levels that our mortgage partners did not have the capacity to process all of the demand, thus reducing the need to pay to acquire consumers, which in turn constrained our mortgage business. Situations like this could harm our business, financial condition and results of operations.

The COVID-19 pandemic has negatively impacted our business and our business recovery will depend on future developments, which are uncertain and cannot be predicted, including the scope and duration of the pandemic and actions taken by governmental authorities in response to the pandemic.

The COVID-19 pandemic has negatively impacted the global economy and led to temporary closures of businesses and increased unemployment. In addition, the institution of social distancing and sheltering in place has adversely impacted the travel sector which has, in turn, reduced interest in credit cards that have travel-related benefits. The unstable socioeconomic backdrop has impacted consumer finances and caused some financial services providers to tighten underwriting standards. Consumer demand in our verticals, in particular credit cards, has been and may continue to be significantly impacted. Demand from our financial services partners has also impacted our credit card vertical market, as credit card issuers paused or limited their customer acquisition efforts with us during portions of 2020. For parts of the 2020 calendar year some of our financial services partners were slower to approve applications for products such as mortgages, and others reduced advertising budgets given the inherent economic uncertainty during the year. As a result of these factors, we experienced lower growth in 2020 as compared to 2019, particularly in the second half of the year.

The extent to which the COVID-19 pandemic will continue to impact our business, financial condition and results of operations depends on future developments, which are highly uncertain and cannot be predicted, including vaccine distribution, vaccine acceptance, the scope and duration of the pandemic and actions taken by governmental authorities and other third parties in response to the pandemic.

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Risks Related to Regulation

Our business is subject to a variety of U.S. financial regulations, many of which are overlapping, ambiguous and still developing, which could subject us to claims or otherwise harm our business.

Aspects of our business are subject to a variety of federal and state financial and other laws, including laws and state licensing requirements relating to matching consumers with financial services providers and marketing of mortgages, credit cards, personal loans, insurance, and other financial products and services; privacy and data security; investment advisory services; and other laws that are frequently evolving and developing. The scope and interpretation of such laws are often uncertain and may be conflicting or ambiguous. It is difficult to predict how existing laws, some of which were enacted prior to the widespread adoption of the internet and mobile devices, will be applied to our business and the new laws to which we may become subject. In addition, as our business grows into new markets or expands and we collect, use and share more user data internally and with financial services partners, we may become subject to additional laws and regulations. With the new U.S. Presidential administration, we anticipate that federal regulators that are relevant to our business, such as the Federal Trade Commission and the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, may pursue more enforcement actions as compared to the prior Presidential administration. In addition, Congress, federal agencies, state legislatures and state regulators may from time to time enact new laws, regulations or guidance that may harm our business.

If we are not able to comply with applicable financial and other laws or regulations or if we become liable under these laws or regulations, we could be directly harmed, and we may be forced to implement new measures to reduce our exposure to this liability. This may require us to expend substantial resources or to discontinue certain products or features, which would negatively affect our business. In addition, negative publicity resulting from regulatory actions against us or others in our industry could harm our reputation or otherwise impact the growth of our business. Any costs incurred to prevent or mitigate this potential liability could also harm our business, financial condition and operating results.

Failure to obtain proper business licenses or other documentation or to otherwise comply with local laws and requirements regarding marketing or matching consumer with financial services providers, may result in civil or criminal penalties and restrictions on our ability to conduct business in that jurisdiction.

Most states require companies to hold licenses in order to solicit or broker loans secured by residential mortgages, and in many cases require the licensure or registration of individual employees or contractors engaged in aspects of these businesses. States also require licenses to undertake certain insurance brokerage activities and in many cases require the licensure or registration of individual employees or contractors engaged in aspects of these activities. In addition, some states may require licenses to conduct similar activity with respect to commercial loans, credit cards and unsecured personal loans to residents of those states, although the applicability of these requirements to our business varies depending on our products as well as the loan products, terms, and the types of institutions that we partner with. Compliance with these requirements may render it more difficult for us and our financial services partners to operate or may raise our internal costs or the costs of our financial services partners, which may be passed on to us through less favorable commercial arrangements. While we have endeavored to comply with applicable requirements, the application of these requirements to persons operating online is not always clear and the failure to comply with any such applicable requirements may require us to expend significant capital and resources to investigate and remedy the noncompliance and subject us to litigation, regulatory enforcement action, fines, penalties, and other liability, which could adversely affect our business, financial condition and results of operations. Moreover, any of the licenses or rights currently held by us or our employees may be revoked prior to, or may not be renewed upon, their expiration. In addition, we or our employees may not be granted new licenses or rights for which they may be required to apply from time to time in the future.

Regulations promulgated by some states may also impose compliance obligations on directors, executive officers, and any person who acquires a certain percentage (for example, 10% or more) of the equity in a licensed entity, including requiring such persons to periodically file financial and other personal and business information with state regulators. If any such person refuses or fails to comply with these requirements, we may be unable to obtain certain licenses and existing licensing arrangements may be jeopardized. The inability to obtain, or the loss of, required licenses could harm our business, financial condition and results of operations.

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We collect, store use and otherwise process personal information, including financial information and other sensitive data, which subjects us to governmental regulation and other legal obligations related to data privacy and security. Our actual or perceived failure to comply with such obligations could harm our business.

We collect, store, use and process personal information and other user data, including financial information, credit report information and other sensitive information for our Registered Users. We rely on this data provided to us by users and third parties to offer, improve and innovate our products. If we are unable to maintain and grow such data we may be unable to provide consumers with a platform experience that is relevant, efficient and effective, which could adversely affect our business, financial condition and results of operations.

There are numerous federal, state and local laws and regulations regarding data privacy and the storing, sharing, use, processing, disclosure and protection of personal information and other user data, the scope of which are changing and subject to differing interpretations. In addition, as we continue to expand internationally, we are subject to foreign data privacy and security laws and regulations. These data privacy laws and regulations are complex, continue to evolve, and on occasion may be inconsistent between jurisdictions leading to uncertainty in interpreting such laws. We are also subject to the terms of our privacy policies and privacy-related obligations to third parties, and, given the recent change in administration, we expect a heightened level of scrutiny on the financial data we handle. It is possible that these laws, regulations, and other obligations may be interpreted and applied in a manner that is inconsistent from one regulatory body to another and may conflict with other rules or our practices.

Most of the jurisdictions in which we operate have established their own data privacy and security legal frameworks. For example, in the U.S., we are subject to the Gramm–Leach–Bliley Act (GLBA) which governs non-public personal information of individuals who obtain financial products or services from financial institutions primarily for personal, family or household purposes as well as the Fair Credit Reporting Act (FCRA) which generally governs the collection of credit information and access to credit reports. These laws restrict the collection, use, storage and disposal of information about individuals that we may collect during the provision of our products and impose certain disclosure obligations on us. Failure to comply with these laws can result in regulatory fines or penalties. Certain of our products that are not otherwise subject to the GLBA or FCRA may be subject to additional laws and regulations. For example, the California Consumer Privacy Act (CCPA) created new data privacy rights for California-resident users that will be expanded when the California Privacy Rights Act (CPRA), which was approved in November 2020, goes into effect. In addition, Virginia recently passed the Consumer Data Protection Act, which will go into effect at the same time as CPRA and many other states are considering enacting privacy laws. These laws, as well as any associated regulations, may increase our operating costs and potential liability (particularly in the event of a data breach), delay or impede the development of new products, and have a material adverse effect on our business, including how we use information about individuals, our financial condition and the results of our operations or prospects.

As we expand internationally, we will also be subject to international laws regarding privacy and the storing, sharing, use, processing, disclosure and protection of personal information and other user data. For example, following our recent expansion into the UK market, we are subject to privacy, data security, and data protection risks in connection with requirements of the UK’s data protection regime, consisting primarily of the Data Protection Act 2018 and the Data Protection, Privacy and Electronic Communications Regulations 2019 as amended by the Data Protection, Privacy and Electronic Communications Regulations 2020, or the UK GDPR, and other data protection regulations. Among other stringent requirements, the UK GDPR (like its EU counterpart) restricts transfers of data from the UK to third countries deemed to lack adequate privacy protections (such as the U.S.), unless an appropriate safeguard is implemented.

Following the result of a referendum in 2016, the UK left the EU on January 31, 2020, commonly referred to as Brexit. Brexit has created uncertainty with regard to the regulation of data protection in the UK. Although UK privacy, data protection and data security laws are designed to be consistent with the EU’s GDPR, uncertainty remains regarding how privacy, data protection, information security and data transfers to and from the UK will be regulated notwithstanding Brexit. For example, authorities in the UK may, like their EU counterparts, invalidate use of the EU-U.S. Privacy Shield and raise questions on the viability of the European Commission’s Standard Contractual Clauses. With substantial uncertainty over the interpretation and application of data transfer, privacy, data protection, and information security in the UK, we may face challenges in addressing their requirements and

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making necessary changes to our policies and practices, and may incur significant costs and expenses in an effort to do so. Any failure or perceived failure by us to comply with applicable laws and regulations or any of our other legal obligations relating to privacy, data protection, or information security may result in governmental investigations or enforcement actions, litigation, claims, or public statements against us. Any of the foregoing could result in significant liability or cause our users to lose trust in us, any of which could have an adverse effect on our reputation, operations, financial performance and business. Furthermore, the costs of compliance with, and other burdens imposed by, the laws, regulations, and policies that are applicable to the businesses of our customers may limit the adoption and use of, and reduce the overall demand for, our products and services.

We are also subject to and actively taking steps to comply with evolving UK privacy laws on cookies and e-marketing. In the UK, informed consent is required for the placement of certain cookies or similar technologies on a user’s device and for direct electronic marketing and valid consent is tightly defined, including, a prohibition on pre-checked consents and, in the context of cookies, a requirement to obtain separate consents for each type of cookie or similar technology. Strict enforcement of these requirements could lead to substantial costs, require significant systems changes, limit the effectiveness of our marketing activities, divert the attention of our technology personnel, adversely affect our margins, increase costs and subject us to additional liabilities. Regulation of cookies and similar technologies, and any decline of cookies or similar online tracking technologies as a means to identify and potentially target users, may negatively impact our efforts to understand users and match them with products.

Any failure or perceived failure by us to comply with our privacy policies, our privacy-related obligations to users or other third parties, or our privacy-related legal obligations, or any compromise of security that results in the unauthorized release or transfer of personally identifiable information or other user data, may result in governmental enforcement actions, litigation or negative publicity and could cause our users and financial partners to lose trust in us, which would have a material and adverse effect on our business. We may also be subject to remedies that may harm our business, including fines, demands or orders that we modify or cease existing or planned business practices.

Our failure to comply with economic and trade sanctions laws and regulations of the United States could materially adversely affect our reputation, business, financial condition and results of operations.

Our business must be conducted in compliance with applicable economic and trade sanctions laws and regulations, such as those administered and enforced by the U.S. Department of Treasury’s Office of Foreign Assets Control, the U.S. Department of State, the U.S. Department of Commerce, the United Nations Security Council and other relevant sanctions authorities. Our failure to comply with these laws and regulations may expose us to reputational harm as well as significant penalties, including criminal fines, imprisonment, civil fines, disgorgement of profits, injunctions and debarment from government contracts, as well as other remedial measures. Investigations of alleged violations can be expensive and disruptive. Despite our compliance efforts and activities we cannot assure compliance by our employees or representatives for which we may be held responsible, and any such violation could materially adversely affect our reputation, business, financial condition and results of operations.

Risks Related to Our Human Capital

We depend on our executive team and other key employees to manage the business and the loss of one or more of these employees or an inability to attract and retain highly skilled employees could materially harm our business.

Our success depends largely upon the continued high performance of our executive team and other key employees. We rely on our executive team for leadership in critical areas of our business, including product development, engineering, marketing, security, business development, and general and administrative functions. The loss of one or more of our executives or key employees would have an adverse effect on our business. From time to time, there may be changes in executives due to hiring or departures, which could disrupt our business. We do not have employment agreements with executives or other key personnel that require them to continue to work for us for any specified period and, therefore, they could terminate their employment at any time.

We depend on our senior management, including Tim Chen, our founder and Chief Executive Officer, and Lauren StClair, our Chief Financial Officer, as well as other key personnel. We may not be able to retain the services of any of our senior management or other key personnel, as their employment is at-will and they could

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leave at any time. If we lose the services of one or more of our senior management and other key personnel, including as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic, we may not be able to successfully manage our business, meet competitive challenges or achieve our growth objectives. Further, to the extent that our business grows, we will need to attract and retain additional qualified management personnel in a timely manner, and we may not be able to do so. Our future success depends on our continuing ability to identify, hire, develop, motivate, retain and integrate highly skilled personnel in all areas of our organization.

We face stiff competition for qualified personnel and if we fail to attract new personnel or fail to retain and motivate our current personnel, our business, financial condition and results of operations could be materially and adversely affected.

To execute our growth plan, we must attract and retain highly qualified personnel. Competition for these personnel is intense, especially for engineers experienced in designing and developing online and mobile products. We have experienced and we expect to continue to experience difficulty in hiring and retaining employees with appropriate qualifications. To attract and retain top talent, we have had to offer, and we believe we will need to continue to offer, competitive compensation and benefits packages. Many of the companies with which we compete for experienced personnel have greater operating histories and resources than we have or are publicly traded which may make them more attractive to candidates.

In addition, attrition creates challenges as we must expend significant time and resources to identify, recruit, train and integrate new employees. If we are unable to retain qualified personnel or to effectively manage our hiring needs and successfully integrate new hires, then our efficiency, ability to meet forecasts, employee morale, productivity and retention could suffer, which could adversely affect our business.

We have recently decided to allow our employees to work remotely on an indefinite basis and we plan to continue recruiting employees working remotely, which could result in reduced morale and cohesiveness and increased cybersecurity risk, which could negatively affect our business.

During the COVID-19 pandemic we transitioned all of our employees to a remote work environment in order to mitigate the spread of COVID-19 and comply with local shelter in place policies. Subsequently we adopted a new policy that allows for almost all roles to be open to remote employees on an ongoing basis, even if local shelter in place restrictions are lifted. The transition to remote work may reduce employee morale or cohesiveness among our employees while our company culture adjusts from a headquarters-centric company to a distributed workforce. In addition, our new remote employment policy may exacerbate certain risks to our business, including an increased demand for information technology resources, increased risk of phishing and other cybersecurity attacks, increased risk of unauthorized dissemination of sensitive information and increased complexity in coordinating the actions of the organization, any of which could adversely affect our business. As a result, our culture, information technology requirements, cybersecurity risk, and business operations could be adversely affected.

Risks Related to Our Technology and Intellectual Property

Security incidents, or real or perceived errors, failures or bugs in our systems and platform could impair our operations, compromise our confidential information or our users’ personal information, damage our reputation and brand, and harm our business and operating results.

Our continued success depends on our systems, applications, and software continuing to operate and to meet the changing needs of our customers and users and financial services partners. We rely on our technology and engineering staff and vendors to successfully implement changes to and maintain our systems and services in an efficient and secure manner. Like all information systems and technology, our platform may contain or develop material errors, failures, vulnerabilities or bugs, particularly when new features or capabilities are released, and may be subject to computer viruses or malicious code, break-ins, phishing impersonation attacks, attempts to overload our servers with denial-of-service or other attacks, ransomware and similar incidents or disruptions from unauthorized use of our computer systems, as well as unintentional incidents causing data leakage, any of which could lead to interruptions, delays or shutdown of our platform.

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Operating our business and products involves the collection, storage, use and transmission of large volumes of sensitive, proprietary and confidential information, including financial and personal information, pertaining to our current, prospective and past users, as well as our staff, contractors, and business partners. The security measures we take to protect this information may be breached as a result of computer malware, viruses, social engineering, ransomware attacks, account takeover attacks, hacking and cyberattacks, including by state-sponsored and other sophisticated organizations. Such incidents have become more prevalent in recent years. Our security measures could also be compromised by our personnel, theft or errors, or be insufficient to prevent exploitation of security vulnerabilities in software or systems on which we rely. Such incidents may in the future result in unauthorized, unlawful or inappropriate use, destruction or disclosure of, access to, or inability to access the sensitive, proprietary and confidential information that we handle. These incidents may remain undetected for extended periods of time.

Because there are many different cybercrime and hacking techniques and such techniques continue to evolve, we may be unable to anticipate attempted security breaches, react in a timely manner or implement adequate preventative measures. While we have developed systems and processes designed to protect the integrity, confidentiality and security of our and our users’ confidential and personal information under our control, we cannot assure you that any security measures that we or our third party service providers have implemented will be effective against current or future security threats.

A security breach or other security incident, or the perception that one has occurred, could result in a loss of confidence by both our users and financial services partners and damage our reputation and brand; reduce demand for our products; disrupt normal business operations; require us to expend significant capital and resources to investigate and remedy the incident and prevent recurrence; and subject us to litigation, regulatory enforcement action, fines, penalties, and other liability, which could adversely affect our business, financial condition and results of operations. Even if we take steps that we believe are adequate to protect us from cyber threats, hacking against our competitors or other companies in our industry could create the perception among our users and financial services partners that our digital platform is not safe to use. Security incidents could also damage our IT systems and our ability to make the financial reports and other public disclosures required of public companies. These risks are likely to continue to increase as we continue to grow and process, store and transmit an increasingly larger and larger volumes of data.

We rely on third party service providers to support our platform and information technology systems.

We rely on third-party service providers to provide critical services that help us deliver our products and operate our business, including hosting our platform. These providers may support or operate critical business systems for us or store or process the same sensitive, proprietary and confidential information that we handle. We do not have redundant network or rapid disaster recovery capabilities in most cases for the services provided by third-party service providers. These service providers may not have adequate security measures and could experience a security incident that compromises the confidentiality, integrity or availability of the systems they operate for us or the information they process on our behalf. Such occurrences could adversely affect our business to the same degree as if we had experienced these occurrences directly and we may not have recourse to the responsible third-party service providers for the resulting liability we incur.

Any significant disruption to the infrastructure of our third-party service providers and/or any changes in our third-party service providers’ service levels may significantly impact our business operations, including making our platform unavailable to our users. A lengthy interruption in the availability of our platform would result in a loss of matches with our financial partners and corresponding revenue, which would impact our operating results and cash flow. In addition, it would negatively impact search engine ranking, user experience and our reputation with our financial partners. Furthermore, in the event that any of our agreements with our third-party service providers are terminated, we may experience significant costs or downtime in connection with the transfer to, or the addition of, new hosting providers. Although alternative providers could host our platform on a substantially similar basis, such transition could potentially be disruptive and we could incur significant costs in connection therewith.

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Claims by others that we infringed their proprietary technology or other intellectual property rights could harm our business.

Companies in the internet and technology industries are frequently subject to litigation based on allegations of infringement, misappropriation or other violations of intellectual property rights. In addition, certain companies and rights holders seek to enforce and monetize patents or other intellectual property rights they own, have purchased or have otherwise obtained. As we gain an increasingly high public profile, the possibility of intellectual property rights claims against us grows. Third parties have in the past and may in the future assert claims of infringement of intellectual property rights against us. Although we may have meritorious defenses, there can be no assurance that we will be successful in defending against these allegations or in reaching a business resolution that is satisfactory to us. Our competitors and others may now and in the future have patent portfolios that are used against us. In addition, future litigation may involve patent holding companies or other adverse patent owners who have no relevant product or service revenue and against whom our own patents may therefore provide little or no deterrence or protection. Many potential litigants, including some of our competitors and patent-holding companies, have the ability to dedicate substantial resources to the assertion of their intellectual property rights. Any claim of infringement by a third party, even those without merit, could cause us to incur substantial costs defending against the claim, could distract our management from our business and could require us to cease use of such intellectual property. Furthermore, because of the substantial amount of discovery required in connection with intellectual property litigation, we risk compromising our confidential information during this type of litigation. We may be required to pay substantial damages, royalties or other fees in connection with a claimant securing a judgment against us, we may be subject to an injunction or other restrictions that prevent us from using or distributing our intellectual property, or from operating under our brand, or we may agree to a settlement that prevents us from distributing our offerings or a portion thereof, which could adversely affect our business, results of operations and financial condition.

With respect to any intellectual property rights claim, we may have to seek out a license to continue operations found or alleged to violate such rights, which may not be available on favorable or commercially reasonable terms and may significantly increase our operating expenses. Some licenses may be non-exclusive, and therefore our competitors may have access to the same technology licensed to us. If a third party does not offer us a license to its intellectual property on reasonable terms, or at all, we may be required to develop alternative, non-infringing technology, which could require significant time (during which we would be unable to continue to offer our affected offerings), effort and expense and may ultimately not be successful. Any of these events could adversely affect our business, results of operations and financial condition.

Failure to protect or enforce our intellectual property rights could harm our business, financial condition and results of operations.

We strive to protect our intellectual property rights by relying on a combination of federal, state and common law trademark, copyright, and trade secret protection laws, as well as contractual restrictions and business practices. In particular, we must maintain and protect the “NerdWallet” name and related marks and intellectual property and also police copying of our editorial articles. In addition, we typically enter into confidentiality and invention assignment agreements with employees and contractors, and confidentiality agreements with parties with whom we conduct business in order to limit access to, and disclosure and use of, our confidential or proprietary information. However, these contractual arrangements and the other steps we have taken to protect our intellectual property may not prevent the misappropriation or disclosure of our proprietary information nor deter independent development of similar technologies by others. Failure to protect or maintain our intellectual property could harm our business, financial condition and results of operations.

While our content, software and other works may be protected under copyright law, we have chosen not to register any copyrights in these works. In order to bring a copyright infringement lawsuit in the United States, the copyright must be registered. Accordingly, the remedies and damages available to us for unauthorized use of our software may be limited.

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We may not be able to continue to obtain licenses to third-party software and intellectual property on reasonable terms or at all, which may disrupt our business and harm our financial results.

We license third-party software and other intellectual property for use in connection with our platform, including for various third party product integrations with our platform. Our third party licenses typically limit our use of intellectual property to specific uses and include other contractual obligations with which we must comply. These licenses may need to be renegotiated or renewed from time to time, or we may need to obtain new licenses in the future. Third parties may stop adequately supporting or maintaining their offerings or they or their technology may be acquired by our competitors. If we are unable to obtain licenses to these third-party software and intellectual property on reasonable terms or at all, the functionalities available through our platform may be adversely impacted, which could in turn harm our business. Further, if we or our third-party licensors were to breach any material term of a license, such a breach could, among other things, prompt costly litigation, result in the license being invalidated and or result in fines and other damages. If any of the following were to occur, it could harm our business, financial results and our reputation.

We also cannot be certain that our licensors are not infringing the intellectual property rights of others or that our licensors have sufficient rights to the intellectual property to grant us the applicable licenses. Although we seek to mitigate this risk contractually, we may not be able to sufficiently limit our potential liability. If we are unable to obtain or maintain rights to any of this intellectual property because of intellectual property infringement claims brought by third parties against our licensors or against us, our ability to provide functionalities through our platform using such intellectual property could be severely limited and our business could be harmed. Furthermore, regardless of outcome, infringement claims may require us to use significant resources and may divert management’s attention.

We rely on operating system providers and app stores to support our platform, and any disruption, deterioration or change in their services, policies, practices, guidelines and/or terms of service could have a material adverse effect on our business, financial condition and results of operations.

The success of our platform depends upon the effective operation of certain mobile operating systems, networks and standards that are run by operating system providers and app stores, or Providers. We do not control these Providers and, as a result, we are subject to risks and uncertainties related to the actions taken, or not taken, by these Providers. We largely utilize Android-based and iOS-based technology for our digital application platform. If any Providers, including either Google (for Android) or Apple (for iOS) stop providing us with access to their platform or infrastructure, fail to provide reliable access, cease operations, modify or introduce new systems, change or interpret their terms of service, guidelines or policies, or otherwise terminate services, the delay caused by qualifying and switching to other operating systems could be time consuming and costly and could materially and adversely affect our business, financial condition and results of operations. In addition, Providers may limit the use of personal information and other data for advertising purposes or restrict how users can share information on their platform or across other platforms, which could materially and adversely affect our business, financial condition and results of operations or otherwise require us to change the way we conduct our business. Any limitation on or discontinuation of our or our users’ access to any Provider’s platform or app store could materially and adversely affect our business, financial condition, results of operations or otherwise require us to change the way we conduct our business.

Some of our products and services contain open source software, which may pose particular risks to our proprietary software, products, and services in a manner that could have a negative effect on our business.

We use open source software in our platform and anticipate continuing to use open source software in the future. Some open source software licenses require those who distribute open source software as part of their own software product to publicly disclose all or part of the source code of such software product or to make available any derivative works of the open source code on unfavorable terms or at no cost, and we may be subject to such terms. The terms of certain open source licenses to which we are subject have not been interpreted by U.S. or foreign courts, and there is a risk that open source software licenses could be construed in a manner that imposes unanticipated conditions or restrictions on our ability to provide or distribute our products or services. Additionally, we could face claims from third parties claiming ownership of, or demanding release of, the open source software or derivative works that we develop using such software, which could include our proprietary source code, or otherwise

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seeking to enforce the terms of the applicable open source license. These claims could result in litigation and could require us to make our software source code freely available, purchase a costly license or cease offering the implicated products or services unless and until we can re-engineer such source code to eliminate use of such open source software. This re-engineering process could require us to expend significant additional research and development resources, and we may not be able to complete the re-engineering process successfully. In addition to risks related to license requirements, use of certain open source software can lead to greater risks than use of third-party commercial software, as open source licensors generally do not provide warranties, assurance of title or controls on the origin or operation of the open source software, which are risks that cannot be eliminated, and could, if not properly addressed, negatively affect our business. We cannot be sure that all of our use of open source software is in a manner that is consistent with our current policies and procedures, or will not subject us to liability. Any of these risks could be difficult to eliminate or manage, and, if not addressed, would have a negative effect on our business, financial condition and operating results.

Risks Related to Our Financial Operations and Accounting Matters

Our debt agreements contain certain restrictions that may limit our ability to operate our business.

The terms of our existing credit agreement and the related collateral documents with Silicon Valley Bank (SVB) as administrative agent contain, and any future indebtedness may contain, a number of restrictive covenants that impose significant operating and financial restrictions on us, including restrictions on our ability, and the ability of our subsidiaries, to take actions that may be in our best interests, including, among others, disposing of assets, entering into change of control transactions, mergers or acquisitions, incurring additional indebtedness, granting liens on our assets, declaring and paying dividends and agreeing to do any of the foregoing. Our credit agreement requires us to satisfy specified financial covenants, including a minimum adjusted quick ratio, tested monthly, and a minimum consolidated adjusted EBITDA covenant, tested quarterly. Our ability to meet those financial covenants can be affected by events beyond our control, and we may not be able to continue to meet those covenants. A breach of any of these covenants or the occurrence of other events (including an event or condition that has had a material adverse effect (as defined in the credit agreement)) specified in the credit agreement and/or the related collateral documents could result in an event of default under the credit agreement. Upon the occurrence of an event of default, SVB and/or our lenders under the credit agreement could elect to declare all amounts outstanding under the credit agreement, if any, to be immediately due and payable and terminate all commitments to extend further credit. If we were unable to repay those amounts, SVB and our lenders could proceed against the collateral granted to them to secure such indebtedness, which consists of all of our assets other than our intellectual property. We have, and certain of our subsidiaries have, pledged substantially all of our respective assets as collateral under the loan documents. If SVB and our lenders accelerate the repayment of borrowings, if any, we may not have sufficient funds to repay our debt.

Our existing debt agreement may not be sufficient for our capital needs and we may require additional capital to support business growth, which might not be available on acceptable terms, if at all.

We intend to continue to make investments to support our business growth and we may require additional funds to continue to do so. Depending on availability of capital under our existing debt facility, profitability and cash flow, we may need to engage in equity or debt financings to secure additional funds. If we raise additional funds through future issuances of equity or convertible debt securities, our existing stockholders could suffer significant dilution, and any new equity securities we issue could have rights, preferences and privileges superior to those of holders of our Class A common stock. Any debt financing we secure in the future could involve restrictive covenants relating to our capital raising activities and other financial and operational matters, which may make it more difficult for us to obtain additional capital and to pursue business opportunities, including potential acquisitions. We may not be able to obtain additional financing on terms favorable to us, if at all. If we are unable to obtain adequate financing or financing on satisfactory terms when required, our ability to continue to support our business growth and respond to business challenges could be significantly impaired, delayed or abandoned, and our business may be harmed.

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We may be unable to make acquisitions and investments, successfully integrate acquired companies into our business, or our acquisitions and investments may not meet our expectations, any of which could adversely affect our business, financial condition, and results of operations.

We acquired KYM and Fundera in the third and fourth quarters of 2020, respectively. We do not have extensive experience acquiring and integrating other businesses and technologies and there are inherent risks in integrating the acquired personnel, operations and technologies and managing the combined business effectively following the acquisition.

We may in the future acquire or invest in, businesses, offerings, technologies, or talent that we believe could complement or expand our existing product offerings, enhance our technical capabilities, or otherwise offer growth opportunities. The pursuit of future potential acquisitions and investments may divert the attention of management and cause us to incur significant expenses related to identifying, investigating, and pursuing suitable acquisitions and investments, whether or not they are consummated. Furthermore, even if we successfully acquire or invest in additional businesses or technologies, we may not achieve the anticipated benefits or synergies due to a number of factors, including, without limitation:

•unanticipated costs or liabilities associated with the acquisition, including claims related to the acquired company, its product offerings, or technology;

•incurrence of acquisition-related or investment-related expenses, which would be recognized as a current period expense;

•inability to generate sufficient revenue to offset acquisition or investment costs;

•inability to maintain relationships with customers and partners of the acquired business;

•challenges maintaining quality and security standards consistent with our brand;

•inability to identify security vulnerabilities in acquired technology;

•inability to achieve anticipated synergies or unanticipated difficulty with integration into our corporate culture;

•the need to integrate or implement additional controls, procedures, and policies;

•challenges caused by distance and cultural differences;

•harm to our existing business relationships with business partners as a result of the acquisition or investment;

•potential loss of key employees;

•use of resources that are needed in other parts of our business and diversion of management and employee resources;

•unanticipated complexity in accounting requirements;

•use of substantial portions of our available cash or the incurrence of debt to consummate the acquisition; and

•disputes that may arise out of earn-outs, escrows, and other arrangements related to an acquisition of a company.

Acquisitions also increase the risk of unforeseen legal liability, including for potential violations of applicable law or industry rules and regulations, arising from prior or ongoing acts or omissions by the acquired businesses that are not discovered by due diligence during the acquisition process. In addition, our acquisition agreements with

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KYM and Fundera contain earn-out provisions. Disputes over whether the earn-out targets have been met could lead to litigation, management distraction and significant expense.

We may have to pay cash, incur additional debt, or issue equity to pay for any future acquisitions or investments, each of which could adversely affect our financial condition. The sale of equity to finance any future acquisitions or investments could result in dilution to our stockholders. The incurrence of additional indebtedness would result in increased fixed obligations and could also include additional covenants or other restrictions that would impede our ability to manage our operations. Any of the foregoing could adversely affect our business, financial condition, and results of operations.

Our acquisition agreements contain contingent consideration, the value of which may impact future operating results.

Our acquisition agreements include contingent earn-out consideration, the fair value of which was estimated as of the acquisition date based on the then-present value of the expected contingent payments as determined using weighted probabilities of possible future payments. These fair value estimates contain unobservable inputs and estimates that could materially differ from the actual future results. The fair value of the contingent earn-out consideration could increase or decrease, up to the contracted limit, as applicable. Changes in the fair value of contingent earn-outs will be reflected in our results of operations in the period in which changes in value occur, the amount of which may be material and cause volatility in our operating results.

Expenses or liabilities resulting from litigation could materially adversely affect our results of operations and financial condition.

We have and may become party to various legal proceedings and other claims that arise in the ordinary course of business, or otherwise in the future. Such matters are subject to many uncertainties and outcomes are not predictable with assurance. In addition, any such claims or litigation may be time-consuming and costly, divert management resources, require us to change our platform or have other adverse effects on our business. While we cannot assure the ultimate outcome of any legal proceeding or contingency in which we are or may become involved, we do not believe that any pending legal claim or proceeding arising in the ordinary course will be resolved in a manner that would have a material adverse effect on our business. However, if one or more of these legal matters resulted in an adverse monetary judgment against us, such a judgment could harm our results of operations and financial condition.

We may not continue to grow at historical rates or achieve or maintain profitability in the future.

We may not realize sufficient revenue to achieve or maintain profitability. As we grow our business, we expect our revenue growth rates may slow in future periods due to a number of reasons, which may include slowing demand for our service, increasing competition, a decrease in the growth of our overall markets, and our failure to capitalize on growth opportunities or the maturation of our business. Our growth rate may slow for a number of reasons, including insufficient growth or a decline in the number of users increasing competition, as well as other risks described in these Risk Factors, and we may encounter unforeseen expenses, difficulties, complications and delays and other unknown factors. We expect to continue to make investments in the development and expansion of our business, which may not result in increased or sufficient revenue or growth, as a result of which we may not be able to achieve or maintain sustained profitability.

We have made significant estimates and judgments in calculating our income tax provision and other tax assets and liabilities. If these estimates or judgments are incorrect, our operating results and financial condition may be materially affected.

We are subject to regular review and audit by both domestic and foreign tax authorities. Any adverse outcome of such a review or audit could have a negative effect on our operating results and financial condition. In addition, the determination of our provision for income taxes and other tax assets and liabilities requires significant judgment, and there are many transactions and calculations where the ultimate tax determination is uncertain at the present time. Although we believe our estimates and judgments are reasonable, the ultimate tax outcome may differ from the

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amounts recorded in our financial statements and may have a material effect on our operating results and financial condition.

Our ability to use our net operating loss carryforwards and certain other tax attributes may be limited.

As of December 31, 2020, we had federal net operating loss carryforwards of approximately $31.6 million, of which $13.1 million, if not utilized, will begin to expire in 2033, and the remaining $18.5 million can be carried forward indefinitely. As of December 31, 2020, we had state net operating loss carryforwards of approximately $17.4 million, the majority of which, if not utilized, will begin to expire on various dates beginning in 2032. In addition, we have approximately $8.8 million and $10.6 million of federal and California research and development credit carryforwards, respectively. The federal credits will start to expire in 2037, while the California credits can be carried forward indefinitely. If we experience one or more ownership changes in the future as a result of future transactions in our stock, our ability to utilize net operating loss carryforwards could be limited. Under the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act of 2017, as modified by the Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and Economic Security (CARES) Act, U.S. federal net operating losses incurred in taxable years beginning after December 31, 2017, may be carried forward indefinitely, but the deductibility of such federal net operating losses in taxable years beginning after December 31, 2020, is limited.

Risks Related to this Offering and Ownership of Our Class A Common Stock

The dual class structure of our common stock has the effect of concentrating voting control with our Co-Founder and CEO, Tim Chen, which will limit or preclude your ability to influence corporate matters.

Our Class B common stock has ten votes per share, and our Class A common stock, which is the stock we are offering in our initial public offering, has one vote per share. Tim Chen, our founder and chief executive officer, and his affiliated trusts hold all outstanding shares of Class B common stock, which will constitute approximately          % of the voting power of our outstanding capital stock following our initial public offering, based on the number of shares outstanding as of            , 2021. Because of the ten-to-one voting ratio between our Class B and Class A common stock, the holders of our Class B common stock collectively will continue to control a majority of the combined voting power of our common stock and therefore be able to control all matters submitted to our stockholders for approval so long as the shares of Class B common stock represent at least 9.1% of all outstanding shares of our Class A and Class B common stock. This concentrated control will limit or preclude your ability to influence corporate governance matters and transactions for the foreseeable future.

Future transfers by holders of Class B common stock will generally result in those shares converting to Class A common stock, subject to limited exceptions, such as certain transfers effected for tax or estate planning purposes. The conversion of Class B common stock to Class A common stock will have the effect, over time, of increasing the relative voting power of those holders of Class B common stock who retain their shares in the long-term. If, for example, Mr. Chen retains a significant portion of his holdings of Class B common stock for an extended period of time, he could, in the future, continue to control a majority of the combined voting power of our Class A common stock and Class B common stock.

Mr. Chen and his affiliated trusts have the ability to control the outcome of all matters submitted to our stockholders for approval, including the election, removal, and replacement of directors and any merger, consolidation, or sale of all or substantially all of our assets. If Mr. Chen’s employment with us is terminated, he will continue to have the ability to exercise the same significant voting power and potentially control the outcome of all matters submitted to our stockholders for approval. Mr. Chen’s and his affiliated trusts’ shares of Class B common stock will automatically convert into Class A common stock, on a one-to-one basis, upon any sale or transfer of the applicable shares (other than transfers to certain permitted entities) or upon his death. This concentrated control could delay, defer, or prevent a change of control, merger, consolidation, or sale of all or substantially all of our assets that our other stockholders support. Conversely, this concentrated control could allow Mr. Chen to consummate such a transaction that our other stockholders do not support. In addition, Mr. Chen may make long-term strategic investment decisions and take risks that may not be successful and may seriously harm our business.

As our CEO, Mr. Chen has control over our day-to-day management and the implementation of major strategic investments of our company, subject to authorization and oversight by our board of directors. As a board member

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and officer, Mr. Chen owes a fiduciary duty to our stockholders and must act in good faith in a manner he reasonably believes to be in the best interests of our stockholders. As a stockholder, Mr. Chen and his affiliated trusts are entitled to vote their shares, and shares over which they have voting control, in their own interests, which may not always be in the interests of our stockholders generally. For a description of the rights of the Class A common stock and Class B common stock, see the section titled “Description of Capital Stock.”

We will be a “controlled company” within the meaning of the Nasdaq Listing Rules and, as a result, will be exempt from certain corporate governance requirements.

Upon the completion of this offering, Mr. Chen and his affiliated trusts will hold capital stock representing a majority of our outstanding voting power. So long as Mr. Chen and his affiliated trusts maintain holdings of more than 50% of the voting power of our capital stock for the election of directors, we will be a “controlled company” within the meaning of the Nasdaq Listing Rules and Nasdaq corporate governance standards. Under these standards, a listed company of which more than 50% of the voting power is held by an individual, group or another company is a “controlled company” and may elect not to comply with certain Nasdaq corporate governance requirements, including:

•the requirement that a majority of our board of directors consist of “independent directors” as defined under Nasdaq rules;

•the requirement that we have a compensation committee that is composed entirely of independent directors; and

•the requirement that we have a nominating and corporate governance committee or otherwise have director nominees selected by vote of a majority of the independent directors.

We intend to use these exemptions following this offering. As a result, following this offering, we do not intend to have a compensation committee composed entirely of independent directors, nor do we intend to have a nominating and corporate governance committee or an independent nominating function. Our full board of directors will be directly responsible for nominating members of our board.

Even as a controlled company, we will remain subject to the rules of Sarbanes-Oxley as well as the Nasdaq Listing Rules that require us to have an audit committee composed entirely of independent directors, subject to permitted phase-in rules. Under these phase-in rules, we are required to have one independent audit committee member upon the listing date of our Class A common stock, a majority of independent audit committee members within 90 days from the listing date and all independent audit committee members within one year from the listing date. Upon our listing, we expect that our audit committee will be comprised of three members, two of whom will be independent.

If we are no longer eligible to rely on the “controlled company” exceptions, we will need to comply with all applicable Nasdaq corporate governance requirements, but we will be able to rely on phase-in periods for certain of these requirements in accordance with the Nasdaq Listing Rules. Accordingly, our stockholders may not have the same protections afforded to stockholders of companies that are subject to all Nasdaq corporate governance requirements.

We do not know whether an active, liquid and orderly trading market will develop for our Class A common stock or what the market price of our Class A common stock will be, and as a result it may be difficult for you to sell your shares of our Class A common stock.

Prior to this offering there has been no public market for shares of our Class A common stock. An active trading market for our shares may never develop or be sustained following this offering. You may not be able to sell your shares quickly or at the market price if trading in shares of our Class A common stock is not active. The initial public offering price for our Class A common stock will be determined through negotiations with the underwriters, and the negotiated price may not be indicative of the market price of the Class A common stock after the offering. As a result of these and other factors, you may be unable to resell your shares of our Class A common stock at or above the initial public offering price. Further, an inactive market may also impair our ability to raise capital by

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selling shares of our Class A common stock and may impair our ability to enter into strategic partnerships or acquire companies or products by using our shares of Class A common stock as consideration.

We cannot predict the impact our dual class structure may have on the market price of our Class A common stock.

We cannot predict whether our dual class structure, combined with the concentrated control of our co-founder and chief executive officer, Tim Chen, and his affiliated trusts, will result in a lower or more volatile market price of our Class A common stock or in adverse publicity or other adverse consequences. For example, certain index providers have announced restrictions on including companies with multiple class share structures in certain of their indexes. For example, in July 2017, FTSE Russell and Standard & Poor’s announced that they would cease to allow most newly public companies utilizing dual or multi-class capital structures to be included in their indices. Under the announced policies, our dual class capital structure would make us ineligible for inclusion in any of these indices. Given the sustained flow of investment into passive strategies that seek to track certain indexes, exclusion from stock indexes would likely preclude investment by many of these funds and could make our Class A common stock less attractive to other investors. As a result, the market price of our Class A common stock could be adversely affected.

The price of our stock may be volatile, and you could lose all or part of your investment.

The trading price of our Class A common stock could be volatile, and you could lose all or part of your investment. The following factors, in addition to other factors described in this “Risk Factors” section and included elsewhere in this prospectus, may have a significant impact on the market price of our Class A common stock:

•our operating and financial performance, quarterly or annual earnings relative to similar companies;

•publication of research reports or news stories about us, our competitors or our industry, or positive or negative recommendations or withdrawal of research coverage by securities analysts;

•the public’s reaction to our press releases, our other public announcements and our filings with the SEC;

•announcements by us or our competitors of acquisitions, business plans or commercial relationships;

•any major change in our board of directors or senior management;

•sales of our Class A common stock by us, our directors, executive officers, principal stockholders, or senior management;

•adverse market reaction to any indebtedness we may incur or refinance or securities we may issue in the future;

•short sales, hedging and other derivative transactions in our Class A common stock;

•exposure to capital market risks related to changes in interest rates, realized investment losses, credit spreads, equity prices, and foreign exchange rates;

•our creditworthiness, financial condition, performance, and prospects;

•our dividend policy and whether dividends on our Class A common stock have been, and are likely to be, declared and paid from time to time;

•perceptions of the investment opportunity associated with our Class A common stock relative to other investment alternatives;

•regulatory or legal developments;

•changes in general market, economic, and political conditions;

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•conditions or trends in our industry, geographies or customers;

•changes in accounting standards, policies, guidance, interpretations or principles; and

•threatened or actual litigation or government investigations.

In addition, broad market and industry factors may negatively affect the market price of our Class A common stock, regardless of our actual operating performance, and factors beyond our control may cause our stock price to decline rapidly and unexpectedly. In addition, in the past, companies that have experienced volatility in the market price of their stock have been subject to securities class action litigation. We may be the target of this type of litigation in the future. Litigation of this type could result in substantial costs and diversion of management’s attention and resources, which could harm our business, financial condition, results of operations or prospects. Any adverse determination in litigation could also subject us to significant liabilities.

Our results of operations may fluctuate on a quarterly and annual basis, which may impact our stock price and make it difficult to predict our future performance.

Our revenue and results of operations could vary significantly from quarter to quarter and year to year and may fail to match periodic expectations as a result of a variety of factors, many of which are outside of our control. Our results may vary from period to period as a result of fluctuations in the number of users using our platform to apply for or sign up for financial services products as well as fluctuations in the timing and amount of our expenses. Fluctuations and variability across our industry and the general economy may also affect our revenue. As a result, comparing our results of operations on a period-to-period basis may not be meaningful, and the results of any one period should not be relied on as an indication of future performance. Our results of operations may not meet the expectations of investors or public market analysts who follow us, which may adversely affect our stock price. In addition to other risk factors discussed in this “Risk Factors” section and elsewhere in this prospectus, factors that may contribute to the variability of our quarterly and annual results include:

•our ability to attract new users and retain existing users, including in a cost-effective manner;

•our ability to accurately forecast revenue and losses and appropriately plan our expenses;

•the effects of changes in search engine algorithms and prominence of our editorial articles in search results;

•the effects of increased competition on our business;

•our ability to successfully maintain our position in and expand in existing markets as well as successfully enter new markets;

•the impact of, and changes in, governmental or other regulation affecting our business;

•our ability to maintain an adequate rate of growth and effectively manage that growth;

•our ability to keep pace with technological changes in our industry;

•the success of our sales and marketing efforts;

•our ability to protect our existing intellectual property and to create new intellectual property;

•costs associated with defending claims, including accident and coverage claims, intellectual property infringement claims, misclassifications and related judgments or settlements;

•the attraction and retention of qualified employees and key personnel;

•the effectiveness of our internal controls; and

•changes in our tax rates or exposure to additional tax liabilities.

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If you purchase our Class A common stock in this offering, you will incur immediate and substantial dilution in the book value of your shares.

The initial public offering price is substantially higher than the pro forma as adjusted net tangible book value per share of our Class A common stock. Investors purchasing Class A common stock in this offering will pay a price per share that substantially exceeds the pro forma as adjusted book value of our tangible assets after subtracting our liabilities. Based on the assumed initial public offering price of $     per share, which is the midpoint of the estimated price range set forth on the cover page of this prospectus, you will experience immediate dilution of $     per share, representing the difference between our pro forma as adjusted net tangible book value per share after this offering and the initial public offering price per share. After this offering, we will also have outstanding options to purchase Class A common stock with exercise prices lower than the initial public offering price. To the extent these outstanding options are exercised, there will be further dilution to investors in this offering. See the section titled “Dilution” for additional information.

We are an emerging growth company, and we cannot be certain if the reduced reporting requirements applicable to emerging growth companies will make our Class A common stock less attractive to investors.

We are an emerging growth company, as defined in the JOBS Act. For as long as we continue to be an emerging growth company, we may take advantage of exemptions from various reporting requirements that are applicable to other public companies that are not emerging growth companies, including reduced disclosure obligations regarding executive compensation in this prospectus and our periodic reports and proxy statements and exemptions from the requirements of holding nonbinding advisory votes on executive compensation and stockholder approval of any golden parachute payments not previously approved. We could be an emerging growth company for up to five years following the year in which we complete this offering, although circumstances could cause us to lose that status earlier. We will remain an emerging growth company until the earlier of (1) the last day of the fiscal year (a) following the fifth anniversary of the completion of this offering, (b) in which we have total annual gross revenue of at least $1.07 billion or (c) in which we are deemed to be a large accelerated filer, which requires the market value of our Class A common stock that is held by non-affiliates to exceed $700 million as of the prior June 30th, and (2) the date on which we have issued more than $1 billion in non-convertible debt during the prior three-year period.

Under the JOBS Act, emerging growth companies can also delay adopting new or revised accounting standards until such time as those standards apply to private companies. We have elected to use this extended transition period for complying with new or revised accounting standards that have different effective dates for public and private companies until the earlier of the date we (i) are no longer an emerging growth company or (ii) affirmatively and irrevocably opt out of the extended transition period provided in the JOBS Act. As a result, our financial statements may not be comparable to companies that comply with new or revised accounting pronouncements as of public company effective dates. If some investors find our Class A common stock less attractive as a result, there may be a less active trading market for our Class A common stock, and our stock price may be more volatile.

As a public company, we will be subject to more stringent federal and state law requirements.

As a public company, we will be subject to the reporting requirements of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934, as amended, or the Exchange Act, the Sarbanes-Oxley Act, the Dodd–Frank Act, the listing requirements of Nasdaq and other applicable securities rules and regulations. Despite reforms made possible by the JOBS Act, compliance with these rules and regulations will nonetheless increase our legal and financial compliance costs, make some activities more difficult, time-consuming or costly and increase demand on our systems and resources, particularly after we are no longer an emerging growth company. The Exchange Act requires, among other things, that we file annual, quarterly and current reports with respect to our business and operating results.

As a result of disclosure of information in this prospectus and in filings required of a public company, our business and financial condition will become more visible, which we believe may result in threatened or actual litigation, including by competitors and other third parties. If such claims are successful, our business, results of operations, financial condition and prospects could be harmed, and even if the claims do not result in litigation or are resolved in our favor, these claims, and the time and resources necessary to resolve them, could divert the resources

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of our management and adversely affect our brand and reputation, business, results of operations, financial condition and prospects. We also expect that being a public company and the associated rules and regulations will make it more expensive for us to obtain director and officer liability insurance, and we may be required to accept reduced coverage or incur substantially higher costs to obtain adequate coverage. These factors could also make it more difficult for us to attract and retain qualified members of our board of directors, particularly to serve on our audit committee and compensation committee, and qualified executive officers.

We do not expect to pay any cash dividends for the foreseeable future.

We have never declared or paid cash dividends on our capital stock, and do not anticipate paying any cash dividends in the foreseeable future. We currently intend to retain future earnings, if any, to fund the development and growth of our business. Any future determination to pay dividends will be at the discretion of the Board of Directors and will be dependent upon our financial condition, results of operations, capital requirements, applicable contractual restrictions and such other factors as the Board of Directors may deem relevant.

We have broad discretion in the use of the net proceeds from this offering and may not use them effectively.

Our management will have broad discretion in the application of the net proceeds from this offering, including for any of the purposes described in the section titled “Use of Proceeds,” and you will not have the opportunity as part of your investment decision to assess whether the net proceeds are being used appropriately. Because of the number and variability of factors that will determine our use of the net proceeds from this offering, their ultimate use may vary substantially from their currently intended use. Our management might not apply our net proceeds in ways that ultimately increase the value of your investment. The failure by our management to apply these funds effectively could harm our business. Pending their use, we may invest the net proceeds from this offering in short- and intermediate-term, interest-bearing instruments, certificates of deposit or direct or guaranteed obligations of the U.S. government. These investments may not yield a favorable return to our stockholders. If we do not invest or apply the net proceeds from this offering in ways that enhance stockholder value, we may fail to achieve expected financial results, which could cause our stock price to decline.

We will incur significant increased costs as a result of operating as a public company, and our management will be required to devote substantial time to new compliance initiatives.

As a public company, and particularly after we are no longer an emerging growth company, we will incur significant legal, accounting, investor relations and other expenses that we did not incur as a private company. In addition, the Sarbanes-Oxley Act and rules subsequently implemented by the SEC and Nasdaq have imposed various requirements on public companies, including establishment and maintenance of effective disclosure and financial controls and corporate governance practices. Stockholder activism, the current political environment and the current high level of U.S. government intervention and regulatory reform may also lead to substantial new regulations and disclosure obligations, which may in turn lead to additional compliance costs and impact the manner in which we operate our business in ways we do not currently anticipate. Our management and other personnel will need to devote a substantial amount of time to comply with these requirements. Moreover, these requirements will increase our legal and financial compliance costs and will make some activities more time-consuming and costly. For example, we expect that these rules and regulations may make it more difficult and more expensive for us to obtain director and officer liability insurance. We cannot predict or estimate the amount or timing of additional costs we may incur to respond to these requirements.

If we fail to maintain proper and effective internal control over financial reporting, our ability to produce accurate and timely financial statements could be impaired, investors may lose confidence in our financial reporting and the trading price of our Class A common stock may decline.

Pursuant to Section 404 of the Sarbanes-Oxley Act, we will be required to furnish a report by our management on our internal control over financial reporting, including an attestation report on internal control over financial reporting issued by our independent registered public accounting firm. However, while we remain an emerging growth company, we will not be required to include an attestation report on internal control over financial reporting issued by our independent registered public accounting firm. The rules governing the standards that must be met for management to assess our internal control over financial reporting are complex and require significant

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documentation, testing and possible remediation. To comply with the Sarbanes-Oxley Act, the requirements of being a reporting company under the Exchange Act and any complex accounting rules in the future, we may need to upgrade our information technology systems; implement additional financial and management controls, reporting systems and procedures; and hire additional accounting and finance staff. We are currently in the process of hiring additional accounting and finance staff as we grow our business. If we are unable to hire the additional accounting and finance staff necessary to comply with these requirements, we may need to retain additional outside consultants. If we or, if required, our auditors, are unable to conclude that our internal control over financial reporting is effective, investors may lose confidence in our financial reporting and the trading price of our Class A common stock may decline.

There can be no assurance that there will not be material weaknesses in our internal control over financial reporting in the future. Any failure to maintain internal control over financial reporting could severely inhibit our ability to accurately report our financial condition, results of operations or cash flows. If we are unable to conclude that our internal control over financial reporting is effective, or if our independent registered public accounting firm determines that we have a material weakness in our internal control over financial reporting, investors may lose confidence in the accuracy and completeness of our financial reports, the market price of our Class A common stock could decline and we could be subject to sanctions or investigations by Nasdaq, the SEC or other regulatory authorities. Failure to remedy any material weakness in our internal control over financial reporting, or to implement or maintain other effective control systems required of public companies, could also restrict our future access to the capital markets.

Sales of a substantial number of shares of our Class A common stock by our existing stockholders in the public market could cause our stock price to fall.

If our existing stockholders sell, or indicate an intention to sell, substantial amounts of our Class A common stock in the public market after the lock-up and other legal restrictions on resale discussed in this prospectus lapse, the trading price of our Class A common stock could decline. Based on shares outstanding as of June 30, 2021, upon the closing of this offering, we will have outstanding a total of 51,002,876 shares of Class A common stock (including shares of our redeemable convertible preferred stock on an as-converted basis, assuming a 1:1 conversion) and 63,371,308 shares of Class B common stock. Of these shares, only the shares of Class A common stock sold in this offering by us, plus any shares sold upon exercise of the underwriters’ option to purchase additional shares, will be freely tradable without restriction in the public market immediately following this offering.

Shares of Class A common stock that are either subject to outstanding options or restricted stock unit awards will become eligible for sale in the public market to the extent permitted by the provisions of various vesting schedules, the lock-up agreements and Rule 144 and Rule 701 under the Securities Act of 1933, as amended, or the Securities Act. If these additional shares of Class A common stock are sold, or if it is perceived that they will be sold, in the public market, the trading price of our Class A common stock could decline.

After this offering, the holders of 31,344,009 shares of our capital stock will be entitled to rights with respect to the registration of their shares under the Securities Act, subject to the lock-up agreements described above. See the section titled “Description of Capital Stock—Registration Rights”. Registration of these shares under the Securities Act would result in the shares becoming freely tradable without restriction under the Securities Act, except for shares held by affiliates, as defined in Rule 144 under the Securities Act. Any sales of securities by these stockholders could harm the trading price of our Class A common stock.

If securities or industry analysts do not publish research or publish inaccurate or unfavorable research about our business, our stock price and trading volume could decline.

The trading market for our Class A common stock will depend in part on the research and reports that securities or industry analysts publish about us or our business. Securities and industry analysts do not currently, and may never, publish research on our company. If no securities or industry analysts commence coverage of our company, the trading price for our stock would likely be negatively impacted. In the event securities or industry analysts initiate coverage, if one or more of the analysts who covers us downgrades our stock or publishes inaccurate or unfavorable research about our business, our stock price may decline. If one or more of these analysts ceases

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coverage of our company or fails to publish reports on us regularly, demand for our stock could decrease, which might cause our stock price and trading volume to decline.

Provisions in our corporate charter documents and under Delaware law could make an acquisition of us, which may be beneficial to our stockholders, more difficult and may prevent attempts by our stockholders to replace or remove our current management.

Provisions in our amended and restated certificate of incorporation and amended and restated bylaws that will become effective upon the closing of this offering may discourage, delay or prevent a merger, acquisition or other change in control of us that stockholders may consider favorable, including transactions in which you might otherwise receive a premium for your shares. These provisions also could limit the price that investors might be willing to pay in the future for shares of our Class A common stock, thereby depressing the market price of our Class A common stock. In addition, because our board of directors is responsible for appointing the members of our management team, these provisions may frustrate or prevent any attempts by our stockholders to replace or remove our current management by making it more difficult for stockholders to replace members of our board of directors. Among other things, these provisions include the following:

•we have a dual class common stock structure, which provides Mr. Chen and his affiliated trusts with the ability to control the outcome of matters requiring stockholder approval, even if he owns significantly less than a majority of the shares of our outstanding Class A and Class B common stock;

•only our chairperson, our chief executive officer, a holder of more than 21,000,000 shares of Class B common stock (subject to adjustment for stock splits, stock dividends, stock combinations and the like), or a majority of our board of directors will be authorized to call a special meeting of stockholders;

•advance notice procedures will apply for stockholders to nominate candidates for election as directors or to bring matters before an annual meeting of stockholders;

•our restated certificate of incorporation will authorize undesignated preferred stock, the terms of which may be established, and shares of which may be issued, without stockholder approval; and

•certain litigation against us can only be brought in Delaware.

Moreover, because we are incorporated in Delaware, we are governed by the provisions of Section 203 of the Delaware General Corporation Law, or DGCL, which prohibits a person who owns 15% or more of our outstanding voting stock from merging or combining with us for a period of three years after the date of the transaction in which the person acquired 15% or more of our outstanding voting stock, unless the merger or combination is approved in a prescribed manner. These provisions could discourage potential acquisition proposals and could delay or prevent a change in control transaction. They could also have the effect of discouraging others from making tender offers for our Class A common stock, including transactions that may be in your best interests. These provisions may also prevent changes in our management or limit the price that investors are willing to pay for our stock.

For information regarding these and other provisions, see the section titled “Description of Capital Stock—Anti-Takeover Effects of Delaware Law and Our Certificate of Incorporation and Bylaws.”

Claims for indemnification by our directors and officers may reduce our available funds to satisfy successful third-party claims against us and may reduce the amount of money available to us.

Our amended and restated certificate of incorporation and amended and restated bylaws that will become effective upon the closing of this offering will provide that we will indemnify our directors and officers, in each case, to the fullest extent permitted by Delaware law. Delaware law provides that directors of a corporation will not be personally liable for monetary damages for any breach of fiduciary duties as directors, except liability for:

•any breach of the director’s duty of loyalty to the corporation or its stockholders;

•any act or omission not in good faith or that involves intentional misconduct or a knowing violation of law;

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•unlawful payments of dividends or unlawful stock repurchases or redemptions; or

•any transaction from which the director derived an improper personal benefit.

Such limitation of liability does not apply to liabilities arising under federal securities laws and does not affect the availability of equitable remedies such as injunctive relief or rescission.

Our amended and restated bylaws that will be in effect upon the completion of this offering will provide that we are required to indemnify our directors and officers to the fullest extent permitted by Delaware law and may indemnify our other employees and agents. Our amended and restated bylaws will also provide that, on satisfaction of certain conditions, we will advance expenses incurred by a director or officer in advance of the final disposition of any action or proceeding, and permit us to secure insurance on behalf of any officer, director, employee or other agent for any liability arising out of his or her actions in that capacity regardless of whether we would otherwise be permitted to indemnify him or her under the provisions of Delaware law. We have entered and expect to continue to enter into agreements to indemnify our directors and executive officers. With certain exceptions, these agreements provide for indemnification for related expenses, including attorneys’ fees, judgments, fines and settlement amounts incurred by any of these individuals in connection with any action, proceeding or investigation. We believe that these amended and restated certificate of incorporation and amended and restated bylaws provisions and indemnification agreements are necessary to attract and retain qualified persons as directors and officers.

While we maintain directors’ and officers’ liability insurance, such insurance may not be adequate to cover all liabilities that we may incur, which may reduce our available funds to satisfy third-party claims and may adversely impact our cash position.

Our amended and restated certificate of incorporation that will become effective upon the completion of this offering provides that the Court of Chancery of the State of Delaware and the federal district courts of the United States of America will be the exclusive forums for substantially all disputes between us and our stockholders, which could limit our stockholders’ ability to obtain a favorable judicial forum for disputes with us or our directors, officers, or employees.

Our amended and restated certificate of incorporation that will become effective upon the completion of this offering will provide that the Court of Chancery of the State of Delaware (or, if and only if the Court of Chancery of the State of Delaware lacks subject matter jurisdiction, any state court located within the State of Delaware or, if and only if all such state courts lack subject matter jurisdiction, the federal district court for the District of Delaware) is the exclusive forum for the following claims or causes of action under Delaware statutory or common law:

•any derivative claim or cause of action brought on our behalf;

•any claim or cause of action for breach of a fiduciary duty owed by any of our current or former directors, officers or other employees to us or our stockholders;

•any claim or cause of action against us or any of our current or former directors, officers or other employees, arising out of or pursuant to any provision of the DGCL, our certificate of incorporation or our bylaws;

•any claim or cause of action seeking to interpret, apply, enforce or determine the validity of our certificate of incorporation or our bylaws;

•any action or proceeding as to which the DGCL confers jurisdiction to the Court of Chancery of the State of Delaware; and

•any claim or cause of action against us or any of our current or former directors, officers or other employees that is governed by the internal-affairs doctrine, in all cases to the fullest extent permitted by law and subject to the court having personal jurisdiction over the indispensable parties named as defendants.

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This provision would not apply to claims or causes of action brought to enforce a duty or liability created by the Exchange Act, or any other claim for which the federal courts have exclusive jurisdiction, or the Securities Act. Furthermore, Section 22 of the Securities Act creates concurrent jurisdiction for federal and state courts over all such Securities Act actions. Accordingly, both state and federal courts have jurisdiction to entertain such claims. To prevent having to litigate claims in multiple jurisdictions and the threat of inconsistent or contrary rulings by different courts, among other considerations, our amended and restated certificate of incorporation that will become effective upon the completion of this offering will provide that the federal district courts of the United States of America will be the exclusive forum for resolving any complaint asserting a cause of action arising under the Securities Act. While the Delaware courts have determined that such choice of forum provisions are facially valid, a stockholder may nevertheless seek to bring a claim in a venue other than those designated in the exclusive forum provisions. In such instance, we would expect to vigorously assert the validity and enforceability of the exclusive forum provisions of our amended and restated certificate of incorporation. This may require significant additional costs associated with resolving such action in other jurisdictions and there can be no assurance that the provisions will be enforced by a court in those other jurisdictions.

These exclusive forum provisions may limit a stockholder’s ability to bring a claim in a judicial forum that it finds favorable for disputes with us or our directors, officers, or other employees, which may discourage lawsuits against us and our directors, officers and other employees. If a court were to find either exclusive-forum provision in our amended and restated certificate of incorporation to be inapplicable or unenforceable in an action, we may incur additional costs associated with resolving the dispute in other jurisdictions, which could seriously harm our business.

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SPECIAL NOTE REGARDING FORWARD-LOOKING STATEMENTS

This prospectus contains forward-looking statements about us and our industry that involve substantial risks and uncertainties. All statements other than statements of historical facts contained in this prospectus are forward-looking statements. In some cases, you can identify forward-looking statements because they contain words such as “anticipate,” “believe,” “contemplate,” “continue,” “could,” “estimate,” “expect,” “intend,” “may,” “plan,” “potential,” “predict,” “project,” “should,” “target,” “will” or “would” or the negative of these words or other similar terms or expressions. These forward-looking statements include, but are not limited, statements concerning the following:

•our expectations regarding our future financial performance, including total revenue, costs of revenue, Adjusted EBITDA and MUUs;

•our ability to grow traffic and engagement on our platform;

•our ability to convert users into Registered Users and improve repeat user rates;

•our ability to convert consumers into matches with financial services partners;

•our ability to grow within existing and new verticals;

•our ability to expand geographically;

•our ability to maintain and expand our relationships with our existing financial services partners and to identify new financial services partners;

•our ability to build efficient and scalable technical capabilities to deliver personalized guidance and nudge users;

•our ability to maintain and enhance our brand awareness and consumer trust;

•our ability to generate high quality, engaging consumer resources;

•our ability to adapt to the evolving financial interests of consumers;

•our ability to compete with existing and new competitors in existing and new market verticals;

•our ability to maintain the security and availability of our platform;

•our ability to maintain, protect and enhance our intellectual property;

•our ability to identify, attract and retain highly skilled, diverse personnel;

•our ability to stay in compliance with laws and regulations that currently apply or become applicable to our business;

•the sufficiency of our cash, cash equivalents, and investments to meet our liquidity needs;

•our ability to effectively manage our growth and expand our infrastructure and maintain our corporate culture; and

•our ability to successfully identify, manage, and integrate any existing and potential acquisitions.

You should not rely on forward-looking statements as predictions of future events. We have based the forward-looking statements contained in this prospectus primarily on our current expectations and projections about future events and trends that we believe may affect our business, financial condition and operating results. The outcome of the events described in these forward-looking statements is subject to risks, uncertainties and other factors described in the section titled “Risk Factors” and elsewhere in this prospectus. Moreover, we operate in a very competitive and rapidly changing environment. New risks and uncertainties emerge from time to time, and it is not possible for us to

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predict all risks and uncertainties that could have an impact on the forward-looking statements contained in this prospectus. The results, events and circumstances reflected in the forward-looking statements may not be achieved or occur, and actual results, events or circumstances could differ materially from those described in the forward-looking statements.

In addition, statements that “we believe” and similar statements reflect our beliefs and opinions on the relevant subject. These statements are based on information available to us as of the date of this prospectus. While we believe that information provides a reasonable basis for these statements, that information may be limited or incomplete. Our statements should not be read to indicate that we have conducted an exhaustive inquiry into, or review of, all relevant information. These statements are inherently uncertain, and investors are cautioned not to unduly rely on these statements.

The forward-looking statements made in this prospectus relate only to events as of the date on which the statements are made. We undertake no obligation to update any forward-looking statements made in this prospectus to reflect events or circumstances after the date of this prospectus or to reflect new information or the occurrence of unanticipated events, except as required by law. We may not actually achieve the plans, intentions or expectations disclosed in our forward-looking statements, and you should not place undue reliance on our forward-looking statements. Our forward-looking statements do not reflect the potential impact of any future acquisitions, mergers, dispositions, joint ventures or investments.

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MARKET AND INDUSTRY DATA

This prospectus contains estimates and information concerning our industry, including market size and growth rates of the markets in which we participate, that are based on industry publications and reports. This information involves a number of assumptions and limitations, and you are cautioned not to give undue weight to these estimates. We have not independently verified the accuracy or completeness of the data contained in these industry publications and reports. The industry in which we operate is subject to a high degree of uncertainty and risk due to a variety of factors, including those described in the section titled “Risk Factors.” These and other factors could cause results to differ materially from those expressed in these publications and reports.

Certain information in the text of this prospectus is contained in independent industry publications. The source of these independent industry publications is provided below:

•Tallo, Tallo Data: GenZ + Personal Finance Data March 11, 2021;

•National Financial Educators Council, National Financial Literacy Test Results March 9, 2021;

•IDC, Worldwide Digital Advertising Market Model (DAMM); and

•eMarketer, US Financial Services Digital Ad Spending 2020, August 2020.

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USE OF PROCEEDS

We estimate that we will receive net proceeds from this offering of approximately $                  million (or approximately $                       million if the underwriters exercise their option to purchase additional shares of Class A common stock in full) based on an assumed initial public offering price of $              per share of Class A common stock, the midpoint of the estimated price range set forth on the cover page of this prospectus, after deducting estimated underwriting discounts and commissions and estimated offering expenses.

A $1.00 increase (decrease) in the assumed initial public offering price of $              per share of Class A common stock would increase (decrease) the net proceeds to us from this offering by approximately $                  million, assuming the number of shares offered by us, as set forth on the cover page of this prospectus, remains the same, and after deducting estimated underwriting discounts and commissions. Similarly, each increase (decrease) of 1.0 million shares in the number of shares of Class A common stock offered by us would increase (decrease) the net proceeds to us from this offering by approximately $                      million, assuming the assumed initial public offering price of $               per share of Class A common stock remains the same, and after estimated deducting underwriting discounts and commissions.

The principal purposes of this offering are to increase our capitalization and financial flexibility, and create a public market for our Class A common stock. We intend to use the net proceeds we receive from this offering for general corporate purposes, including working capital, operating expenses and capital expenditures. In addition, we intend to use approximately $28.7 million of the net proceeds we receive from this offering to repay all outstanding principal amounts and accrued interest under certain promissory notes held by family trusts affiliated with Jacob Gibson, one of our co-founders. These promissory notes bear interest at the rate of 4.29% per year and mature in January 2026, and are also required to be repaid upon a deemed liquidation event or an initial public offering. We cannot specify with certainty all of the particular uses for the remaining net proceeds to us from this offering. We may also use a portion of the net proceeds for acquisitions and/or strategic investments in complementary businesses, products, services or technologies. However, we do not have agreements or commitments to enter into any such acquisitions or investments at this time. We will have broad discretion over how to use the net proceeds to us from this offering.

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DIVIDEND POLICY

We have never declared or paid cash dividends on our capital stock. We currently intend to retain all available funds and future earnings, if any, to fund the development and expansion of our business, and we do not anticipate paying any cash dividends in the foreseeable future. Any future determination regarding the declaration and payment of dividends, if any, will be at the discretion of our board of directors and will depend on then-existing conditions, including our financial condition, operating results, contractual restrictions, capital requirements, business prospects and other factors our board of directors may deem relevant. The terms of our credit agreement with Silicon Valley Bank and certain other lenders restrict our ability to pay dividends, and we may enter into additional agreements in the future that could also contain restrictions on payments of cash dividends.

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CAPITALIZATION

The following table sets forth our cash and cash equivalents and restricted cash, and our capitalization as of June 30, 2021 as follows:

•on an actual basis;

•on a pro forma basis to reflect (1) the automatic conversion of all outstanding shares of our redeemable convertible preferred stock as of June 30, 2021 into 15,169,664 shares of Class A common stock immediately prior to the completion of this offering, (2) the reclassification of all 63,371,308 outstanding shares of our Class F common stock into an equal number of shares of our Class B common stock immediately prior to the completion of this offering and, and (3) the filing of our amended and restated certificate of incorporation immediately prior to the completion of this offering; and

•on a pro forma as adjusted basis to give further effect to our issuance and sale of                  shares of Class A common stock in this offering at an assumed initial public offering price of $                   per share, the midpoint of the price range set forth on the cover page of this prospectus, after deducting estimated underwriting discounts and commissions and estimated offering expenses payable by us.

The pro forma and pro forma as adjusted information below is illustrative only, and our capitalization following the completion of this offering will be adjusted based on the actual initial public offering price and other terms of this offering determined at pricing. You should read this information in conjunction with our consolidated financial statements and the related notes included in this prospectus and the “Management’s Discussion and Analysis of Financial Condition and Results of Operations” section and other financial information contained in this prospectus.

	As of June 30, 2021
	Actual		Pro Forma	Pro Forma as Adjusted(1)
	(in millions, except share and per share data)
Cash, cash equivalents and restricted cash	$	41.1	$	$
Long-term debt	$	30.1
Convertible preferred stock, $0.0001 par value per share; 17,301,256 shares authorized; 15,169,664 shares issued and outstanding, actual; no shares authorized, issued and outstanding, pro forma and pro forma as adjusted	$	66.7	—	—
Stockholders’ deficit (equity):
Preferred stock, $0.0001 par value per share: no shares authorized, issued or outstanding, actual;          shares authorized and no shares issued or outstanding, pro forma and pro forma as adjusted	$	—	—
Common stock, $0.0001 par value per share;  255,000,000 shares authorized; 99,204,520 shares issued and outstanding, actual;          shares authorized, 114,374,184 shares issued and outstanding, pro forma;           shares authorized,            shares issued and outstanding, pro forma as adjusted	—
Additional paid-in capital	112.5
Accumulated other comprehensive income	0.8
Accumulated deficit	(58.8)
Total stockholders’ (deficit) equity	$	54.5
Total capitalization	$	151.3	$	$

____________

(1)Each $1.00 increase (decrease) in the assumed initial public offering price of $                  per share of Class A common stock, the midpoint of the price range set forth on the cover page of this prospectus, would increase (decrease) the pro forma as adjusted amount of each of cash, cash equivalents and restricted cash, additional paid-in capital, total stockholders’ (deficit) equity and total capitalization by approximately

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$            per share, assuming that the number of shares offered by us, as set forth on the cover page of this prospectus, remains the same and after deducting estimated underwriting discounts and commissions. Similarly, each increase (decrease) of 1.0 million shares in the number of shares offered by us at the assumed initial public offering price per share would increase (decrease) the pro forma as adjusted amount of each of cash and cash equivalents, total stockholders’ deficit and total capitalization by approximately $                    per share, assuming the assumed initial public offering price of $              per share of Class A common stock remains the same, and after deducting estimated underwriting discounts and commissions.

The number of shares of our Class A common stock that will be outstanding after this offering is based on 51,002,876 shares of our Class A common stock outstanding as of June 30, 2021 (including shares of our redeemable convertible preferred stock on an as-converted basis, assuming a 1:1 conversion) and 63,371,308 shares of our Class B common stock outstanding as of June 30, 2021, and excludes:

•14,907,678 shares of our Class A common stock issuable upon the exercise of options to purchase shares of our Class A common stock outstanding as of June 30, 2021, with a weighted average exercise price of $4.18 per share;

•5,542,675 shares of our Class A common stock issuable upon the vesting of RSUs outstanding as of June 30, 2021;

•                   shares of our Class A common stock reserved for future issuance under our equity compensation plans, consisting of:

• 2,244,628 shares of our Class A common stock reserved for future issuance under the 2012 Plan, as of June 30, 2021;

•            shares of our Class A common stock reserved for future issuance under the 2021 Plan, which includes an annual evergreen increase and will become effective in connection with this offering; and

•            shares of our Class A common stock reserved for future issuance under the ESPP, which includes an annual evergreen increase and will become effective in connection with this offering.

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DILUTION

If you invest in our Class A common stock in this offering, your ownership interest will be immediately diluted to the extent of the difference between the initial public offering price per share of Class A common stock and the pro forma as adjusted net tangible book value per share of our Class A common stock after this offering.

As of              , we had a pro forma net tangible book value (deficit) of $               million, or $                per share. Pro forma net tangible book value per share represents the amount of our total tangible assets less our total liabilities, divided by the number of shares of our Class A common stock outstanding as of               , after giving effect (1) to the automatic conversion of all shares of our redeemable convertible preferred stock outstanding as of               into               shares of our Class A common stock, (2) the reclassification of all         outstanding shares of our Class F common stock into an equal number of shares of our Class B common stock and (3) the filing and effectiveness of our amended and restated certificate of incorporation in connection with the closing of this offering.

After giving further effect to the sale of                     shares of Class A common stock that we are offering at an assumed initial public offering price of $                 per share, the midpoint of the price range set forth on the cover page of this prospectus, and after deducting estimated underwriting discounts and commissions and estimated offering expenses payable by us, our pro forma as adjusted net tangible book value as of               would have been approximately $                 million, or approximately $               per share of Class A common stock. This amount represents an immediate increase in pro forma net tangible book value of $                    per share to our existing stockholders and an immediate dilution in pro forma net tangible book value of approximately $                 per share to new investors purchasing shares of Class A common stock in this offering.

Dilution per share to new investors is determined by subtracting pro forma as adjusted net tangible book value per share after this offering from the initial public offering price per share paid by new investors. The following table illustrates this dilution (without giving effect to any exercise by the underwriters of their option to purchase additional shares of Class A common stock):

Assumed initial public offering price per share		$
Pro forma net tangible book value per share as of	$
Increase in pro forma net tangible book value per share attributable to investors purchasing shares in this offering	$
Pro forma as adjusted net tangible book value per share after this offering		$
Dilution in pro forma as adjusted net tangible book value per share to new investors in this offering		$

The dilution information discussed above is illustrative only and may change based on the actual initial public offering price and other terms of this offering. Each $1.00 increase (decrease) in the assumed initial public offering price of $                per share, the midpoint of the price range set forth on the cover page of this prospectus, would increase (decrease) our pro forma as adjusted net tangible book value per share after this offering by approximately $                     per share, and increase (decrease) the dilution in pro forma net tangible book value per share to new investors by approximately $                    per share, in each case, assuming that the number of shares of Class A common stock offered by us, as set forth on the cover page of this prospectus, remains the same and after deducting estimated underwriting discounts and commissions. Each increase (decrease) of 1.0 million shares in the number of shares of Class A common stock offered by us would increase (decrease) our pro forma as adjusted net tangible book value per share after this offering by approximately $                   per share and decrease (increase) the dilution to investors participating in this offering by approximately $                 per share, in each case assuming that the assumed initial public offering price remains the same, and after deducting estimated underwriting discounts and commissions.

If the underwriters exercise in full their option to purchase additional shares of Class A common stock in full, the pro forma as adjusted net tangible book value after the offering would be $                  per share, the increase in pro forma net tangible book value per share to existing stockholders would be $                  per share and the dilution per share to new investors would be $              per share, in each case assuming an initial public offering price of $                per share, the midpoint of the price range set forth on the cover page of this prospectus.

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The following table summarizes on the pro forma as adjusted basis described above, as of              , the differences between the number of shares of Class A common stock purchased from us by our existing stockholders and Class A common stock by new investors purchasing shares in this offering, the total consideration paid to us in cash and the average price per share paid by existing stockholders for shares of Class A common stock issued prior to this offering and the price to be paid by new investors for shares of Class A common stock in this offering. The calculation below is based on the assumed initial public offering price of $               per share, the midpoint of the price range set forth on the cover page of the prospectus, before deducting estimated underwriting discounts and commissions and estimated offering expenses payable by us.

	Shares Purchased		Total Consideration		Average Price Per Share
	Number	Percent	Amount	Percent
Existing stockholders		%	$	%	$
New investors
Total		100%		100%

The number of shares of our Class A common stock that will be outstanding after this offering is based on 51,002,876 shares of our Class A common stock outstanding as of June 30, 2021 (including shares of our redeemable convertible preferred stock on an as-converted basis, assuming a 1:1 conversion) and 63,371,308 shares of our Class B common stock outstanding as of June 30, 2021, and excludes:

•14,907,678 shares of our Class A common stock issuable upon the exercise of options to purchase shares of our Class A common stock outstanding as of June 30, 2021, with a weighted-average exercise price of $4.18 per share;

•5,542,675 shares of our Class A common stock issuable upon the vesting of RSUs outstanding as of June 30, 2021;

•           shares of our Class A common stock reserved for future issuance under our equity compensation plans, consisting of:

•2,244,628 shares of our Class A common stock reserved for future issuance under the 2012 Plan, as of June 30, 2021;

•          shares of our Class A common stock reserved for future issuance under the 2021 Plan, which includes an annual evergreen increase and will become effective in connection with this offering; and

•          shares of our Class A common stock reserved for future issuance under the ESPP, which includes an annual evergreen increase and will become effective in connection with this offering.

To the extent any outstanding options are exercised, there will be further dilution to new investors. If all of such outstanding options had been exercised as of               , the pro forma as adjusted net tangible book value per share after this offering would be $               , and total dilution per share to new investors would be $               .

If the underwriters exercise in full their option to purchase additional shares of Class A common stock, our existing stockholders would own               % and the investors purchasing shares of our Class A common stock in this offering would own             % of the total number of shares of our Class A common stock outstanding immediately after completion of this offering.

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MANAGEMENT’S DISCUSSION AND ANALYSIS OF FINANCIAL CONDITION AND RESULTS OF OPERATIONS

Overview

Our mission is to provide clarity for all of life’s financial decisions.

Our vision is a world where everyone makes financial decisions with confidence.

At NerdWallet, we empower consumers—both individual consumers and small and mid-sized businesses (SMBs)—to make smarter financial decisions with confidence. Technology, paired with the dramatic growth in innovative financial products, has changed the way consumers manage their financial lives; consumers are more comfortable than ever comparing and shopping for financial products online. At NerdWallet, we are leveraging this transformation to democratize access to trustworthy financial guidance by incorporating our proprietary data science models into our platform—ultimately helping to improve the financial well-being of consumers and the financial services industry as a whole. As the financial industry becomes more fragmented and complex, our value proposition as a trusted, independent and centralized platform for consumers only increases.

We deliver guidance to consumers through educational content, tools and calculators, product marketplaces and our app. Our platform delivers unique value across many financial products, including credit cards, mortgages, insurance, SMB products, personal loans, banking, investing and student loans. We expanded our guidance to the UK with our recent acquisition of Know Your Money (KYM), we also expanded organically into Canada during the third quarter of 2021, and have further plans to expand internationally. Across every touchpoint, the cornerstone of our platform is consumers’ trust in the independent, objective and relevant guidance we provide, free of charge.

This trusted guidance has helped us build a large, loyal and well-informed audience of consumers who turn to us as a resource for many of their money questions and to shop for the best financial products for them. Due to this unique combination of a loyal audience, trusted guidance and tailored recommendations from our underlying machine learning technology, we have become an attractive partner for financial services providers wanting to access these high-value consumers—consumers who might not otherwise trust financial services providers’ recommendations.

By operating at the intersection of consumers and financial services providers, NerdWallet drives value for both. Through our platform, our financial services partners can reach a substantial audience, comprised of 16 million Monthly Unique Users (MUUs) on average in 2020 and 21 million on average in the first half of 2021. After doing research on our platform, consumers are better informed about the financial decision they’re about to make, which makes them primed and ready to transact. Consumers who visit NerdWallet tend to share a few other characteristics that make them attractive customers to our financial services partners: we have received feedback from our financial services partners that our users’ approval rates can be significantly higher than those applying through other channels and they are more eager to explore additional opportunities and products, driving demand for NerdWallet’s financial services partners.

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Our Financial Model

We built our business to provide unbiased and trusted guidance to consumers. Through this guidance, we attract users to our platform and use data science models to match them with relevant products from our financial services partners.

Given our mission is to provide clarity for all of life’s financial decisions, we take actions that aim to prioritize user experience over revenue per user. We believe that taking a long-term view will increase our revenue and grow our business. In addition, we do not always look to maximize the number of our financial services partners on our platform; we instead aim to have products for consumers available on our platform that enable the best match.

We seek to increase the number of consumers who come to NerdWallet pursuing our financial content, guidance, and tech-driven recommendations. We generate revenue by successfully matching those consumers with our financial services partners, from whom we generate fees. These fees from which we recognize revenue include revenue per action, revenue per click, revenue per lead, and revenue per funded loan.

Recent Developments

COVID-19 Impact on our Business

The world has dramatically changed since the World Health Organization categorized COVID-19 as a global pandemic in March 2020. The pandemic caused millions of people to reevaluate many aspects of their lives, with many choosing to pay closer attention to their personal finances. We benefited from industry-wide tailwinds driven by consumers increasingly managing their money online but also faced the headwinds related to an unstable socioeconomic backdrop, which impacted consumers' finances. While consumer demand for many financial services products was high in 2020, for portions of the year some of our financial services partners tightened underwriting criteria or were slower to approve applications for certain products and some reduced advertising budgets given the inherent economic uncertainty.

Due to these factors, we experienced lower growth in 2020 as compared to our growth rate in 2019, particularly in the second half of the year. In 2020, our revenue increased 7% versus an increase of 32% in 2019. Our 2020 annual growth was bolstered by a strong first quarter, during which revenue grew 64% when compared to the same period a year prior.

Beginning in the second quarter of 2020, we saw a mix of financial services partner activity across our verticals. Many partners reduced their activity on our platform while others maintained or increased their activity. Credit card approvals slowed during the height of the economic uncertainty and credit card revenue declined 30% compared to 2019. Conversely, revenue from loans and other verticals increased by 44% compared to 2019 as we saw increased demand in investing, mortgages, and insurance. As a result, we benefited from the diversification of the products and providers available on our platform.

We are seeing revenue trends start to return closer to pre-COVID-19 levels. However, the full impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on the global economy and the extent to which the COVID-19 pandemic will continue to impact our results of operations and cash flows remains uncertain. Our credit cards revenue decreased 30% for the year ended December 31, 2020 compared to the same period in 2019, primarily due to lower approval rates in the market due to economic uncertainty resulting from the pandemic and tighter underwriting criteria. Our credit cards revenue increased 10% for the six months ended June 30, 2021 compared to the same period in 2020, primarily driven by increased activity amid recovery from the economic impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic and higher pricing with our financial services partners. Our loans revenue increased 48% for the year ended December 31, 2020 compared to 2019, and 69% for the six months ended June 30, 2021 compared to the same period in 2020. Mortgage loans revenue increased due to lower interest rates and higher demand from consumers. Our other verticals revenue increased 41% for the year ended December 31, 2020 compared to 2019, and 26% for the six months ended June 30, 2021 compared to the same period in 2020. The other verticals revenue increase in 2020 was attributable to higher consumer demand for insurance and investing activities. The other verticals revenue increase during the six months ended June 30, 2021 was primarily attributable to higher SMB revenue following our acquisition of Fundera.

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Key Factors Affecting Our Performance

Ability to Generate High Quality, Engaging Consumer Resources

Delivering financial guidance and resources on a broad set of topics is core to our value proposition. In order to maintain our position as a trusted destination for personal and SMB financial guidance, we produce high-quality financial guidance, which is developed by our independent team of writers and editors. Our editorial and product teams continuously improve our content, tools and resources to ensure that our platform reflects the latest consumer finance trends and related products from our financial services partners. We plan to continue investing in our growing base of high-value content and tools, which enable us to generate more traffic and grow MUUs, enhancing monetizing activities with our financial services partners and ultimately, our financial performance.

Ability to Attract and Engage Consumers

Our ability to increase user engagement, whether by increasing the frequency with which MUUs visit our platform, or the amount of resources they consume on our platform, is critical to the growth of our business. We focus on attracting users to NerdWallet who are interested in multiple financial products that we review and then use machine learning to help them find financial products for their needs. For example, if an individual comes to our platform to learn more about credit cards, we hope to bring that individual back to NerdWallet at a later time to explore other financial products, often via automated contextual “nudges”. Our ability to attract and engage those visitors directly impacts our ability to earn revenue from financial services partners. As such, we plan to continue investing in content, technology and marketing in order to attract and engage consumers.

Ability to Deepen Our Relationships with Our Financial Services Partners

We worked with over 400 financial services partners as of June 30, 2021. These companies are essential to helping us serve consumers and grow our business. Having a broad range of financial services partners across all of our verticals is important in offering consumers a wide selection of attractive products. Furthermore, all of our revenue is generated from our financial services partners, and as such, relationships with new and existing financial services partners are critical to the success of our business. We continuously aim to selectively add new financial services partners to our platform and to add coverage for additional verticals from existing partners. That said, maximizing the number of our financial services partners on our platform isn’t our primary focus—our focus is quality, and we aim to offer all of the top financial products on our platform. The success of our relationships with financial services partners is in large part based on our ability to provide them with interested and qualified consumers.

Economic Conditions and the Financial Well-Being of Consumers

Our business is reliant on economic conditions in the United States. Any changes in the financial well-being of consumers, including as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic, unemployment, or government stimulus, will affect the demand for various financial services products and therefore impact the number of individuals visiting our platform and our ability to earn revenue from matches completed on our platform. In particular, fluctuations in interest rates affect many of the products offered by our financial services partners, especially mortgages, personal loans, and banking products. Typically, when interest rates decline, we see accelerated consumer demand for loans which in turn leads to increased traffic to our platform. Conversely, when interest rates increase, we see slowed consumer demand for loans and accelerated demand for banking products. The diversity of our revenue, as witnessed during periods impacted by COVID-19, provides us with a resilient business model as evidenced by the 44% increase in revenue from loans and other verticals in 2020 as compared to 2019.

Marketing

Our marketing strategy leverages multiple channels across brand marketing, performance marketing and organic marketing. Sales and marketing expense consists of: brand marketing, primarily advertising costs to increase brand awareness; performance marketing, primarily costs to drive traffic directly to our platform; and organic and other, primarily personnel-related costs for content and other marketing and sales teams. In 2020, approximately 39% of our total marketing expense was attributable to brand marketing, 34% to performance marketing, and the remainder

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to organic marketing and other marketing expenses. During the first half of 2021, approximately 43% of our total marketing expense was attributable to brand marketing, 33% to performance marketing, and the remainder to organic marketing and other marketing expenses. We evaluate the success of our brand marketing by measuring aided brand awareness, which has grown consistently since 2019.

We are able to adjust our marketing spend to reflect changes in external factors and consumer behavior. Performance marketing spend can be adjusted more quickly than brand marketing, which typically involves pre-committing to spend in future periods. During the first and second quarters of 2020, we increased brand marketing by over 100% compared to the same periods in 2019 to increase awareness, but reduced our spend as quickly as possible for the third and fourth quarters by approximately 30% compared to the same periods in 2019 due to the impacts of COVID-19 on our business. We reduced performance marketing earlier in the second, third and fourth quarters of 2020 by approximately 15% compared to the same periods in 2019 in response to fewer financial services partners choosing to market through our platform in certain verticals. The reduction in brand and performance marketing spend reduced the number of MUUs on our platform, which on a quarterly basis declined sequentially in 2020. As the COVID-19 headwinds continue to subside in 2021, we plan to increase both brand and performance marketing to again drive more MUUs to our platform. During the first half of 2021, we increased sales and marketing expense by 73% compared to the first half of 2020, primarily through increases in brand and performance marketing expenses.

In the trailing twelve months as of June 30, 2021, approximately 73% of all traffic to NerdWallet came organically through direct or unpaid channels, reflecting the strength of our brand and organic marketing efforts. Our in-house, award-winning and experienced editorial team leverages search-engine optimization best practices and technology, and designs interfaces to help consumers easily find the information they are seeking. Our editorial team also optimizes page structure to increase visibility, not only for organic search results, but also for Google’s premium features such as FAQs, featured snippets, and video results. Personnel-related expenses within organic marketing were up 9% in 2020 compared with the same period in 2019, which is a reflection of our continued investment in building a comprehensive set of skills and expertise across our editorial team. We will continue to invest heavily in our marketing channels going forward, and believe that our marketing strategy will continue to position NerdWallet as the trusted brand of choice in personal finance, improve traffic acquisition at all levels of the funnel, drive engagement and enable us to scale quickly across new consumer finance verticals and geographies. We intend to invest with the goal of maintaining operating profitability on an annual basis, and we anticipate experiencing a decrease in operating margins over the short-term and a return to historical operating margins over time.

Acquisitions

We have made acquisitions to expand into new verticals, to enter new markets and geographies, and to grow our platform so that our users have better outcomes. In the second half of 2020, we made two acquisitions:

•Fundera. In October 2020, we acquired Fundera, Inc. (Fundera), an online platform which connects SMBs with lenders and other resources. We paid closing consideration of $29.2 million and we may pay up to an additional $66.0 million of contingent earn-out consideration over the next two years based on the achievement of certain financial metrics. Fundera’s SMB-focused advice and loan comparison offerings, together with its strong brand and consultative sales approach, enables us to better support SMBs. This acquisition is a first step to enable deeper integration within existing verticals, which couples our top of funnel strength with Fundera's monetization strategy, including recurring revenue from loan renewals. Combining the strengths of each business will allow NerdWallet to accelerate our growth in the SMB market, and will also serve as a playbook for further vertical integrations.

•Know Your Money. In September 2020, we acquired Notice Media Ltd. (doing business as Know Your Money), an online provider of financial guidance and tools geared towards consumers and SMBs in the UK. We paid closing consideration of $12.3 million and we may pay up to an additional $11.0 million of contingent earn-out consideration over the next two years based on the achievement of certain financial metrics. KYM’s UK expertise and our existing brand recognition have provided us a strong foothold in the UK region. We believe the acquisition will allow us to accelerate our international growth.

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These acquisitions added 1 percentage point to our revenue growth rate in 2020, all of which occurred in the fourth quarter, and added 10 percentage points to our revenue growth rate in the first half of 2021.

Key Operating Metric and Non-GAAP Financial Measure

We collect, review, and analyze operating and financial data of our business to assess our ongoing performance and compare our results to prior period results. In addition to revenue, net income, and other results under generally accepted accounting principles (GAAP), the following sets forth the key operating metric we use to evaluate our business.

Monthly Unique Users (MUUs)

We define a Monthly Unique User (MUU) as a unique user with at least one session in a given month as determined by a unique device identifier. We measure MUUs during a time period longer than one month by averaging the MUUs of each month within that period. We track MUUs to frame the number of users who may transact with the financial services partners on our platform during a given period. During 2020, we grew MUUs by 25% compared to 2019. We experienced the strongest growth in MUUs during the first and second quarters of the year and slower growth during the third and fourth quarters as we reduced sales and marketing spend by over 35% as compared to the first half of 2020 due to underlying economic conditions. During the first half of 2021, we grew MUUs by 23% compared to the first half of 2020 as we increased our sales and marketing expenditures in light of the continued economic recovery. While we expect MUUs to grow over time, the metric may fluctuate from period to period based on economic conditions and our strategic marketing decisions.

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Adjusted EBITDA

We use Adjusted EBITDA in conjunction with GAAP measures as part of our overall assessment of our performance, including the preparation of our annual operating budget and quarterly forecasts, to evaluate the effectiveness of our business strategies, and to communicate with our board of directors concerning our financial performance.

We define Adjusted EBITDA as net income (loss) from continuing operations adjusted to exclude depreciation and amortization, interest expense, net, provision (benefit) for income taxes, and further exclude (1) loss (gain) on impairment and on disposal of assets, (2) remeasurement of the embedded derivative in long-term debt, (3) change in fair value of contingent consideration related to earnouts, (4) deferred compensation related to earnouts, (5) stock-based compensation, and (6) acquisition-related costs.

The above items are excluded from our Adjusted EBITDA measure because these items are non-cash in nature, or because the amount is not driven by core operating results and renders comparisons with prior periods less meaningful.

We believe that Adjusted EBITDA provides useful information to investors and others in understanding and evaluating our operating results and in comparing operating results across periods. Moreover, we have included Adjusted EBITDA in this prospectus because it is a key measurement used by our management internally to make operating decisions, including those related to analyzing operating expenses, evaluating performance, and performing strategic planning and annual budgeting. However, the use of this non-GAAP measure has certain limitations because it does not reflect all items of income and expense that affect our operations. Adjusted EBITDA has limitations as a financial measure, should be considered as supplemental in nature, and is not meant as a substitute for the related financial information prepared in accordance with GAAP. These limitations include the following:

•Adjusted EBITDA does not reflect interest income (expense) and other gains (losses), net, which include unrealized and realized gains and losses on foreign currency exchange and the derivative embedded in long-term debt;

•Adjusted EBITDA excludes certain recurring, non-cash charges, such as depreciation of property and equipment and amortization of intangible assets, and although these are non-cash charges, the assets being depreciated and amortized may have to be replaced in the future, and Adjusted EBITDA does not reflect all cash requirements for such replacements or for new capital expenditure requirements;

•Adjusted EBITDA excludes stock-based compensation expense, which has been, and will continue to be for the foreseeable future, a significant recurring expense in our business and an important part of our compensation strategy; and

•Adjusted EBITDA does not include the impact of impairment of assets previously acquired, acquisition-related transaction expenses, contingent consideration fair value adjustments related to earnouts, and deferred compensation related to earnouts.

In addition, Adjusted EBITDA as we define it may not be comparable to similarly titled measures used by other companies. Because of these limitations, you should consider Adjusted EBITDA alongside other financial performance measures, including net income (loss) and our other GAAP results.

See the section titled “Management’s Discussion and Analysis of Financial Condition and Results of Operations—Non-GAAP Financial Measure” for a reconciliation of Adjusted EBITDA to net income (loss), the most directly comparable financial measure calculated in accordance with GAAP.

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Key Components of Our Results of Operations

Revenue

We generate substantially all of our revenue through fees paid by our financial services partners in the form of either revenue per action, revenue per click, revenue per lead, and revenue per funded loan arrangements. For these revenue arrangements, in which a partner pays only when a consumer satisfies the criteria set forth within the arrangement, revenue is recognized generally when we match the consumer with the financial services partner. For some of our arrangements, the transaction price is considered variable and an estimate of the constrained transaction price is recorded when the match occurs. Our revenue generally includes three product categories: credit cards, loans and other verticals. Credit cards revenue includes revenue from consumer credit cards. Loans revenue includes revenue from home mortgages, personal loans, student loans and auto loans. Other verticals revenue includes revenue from other product sources, including insurance, banking, investing, and SMB products.

Cost of revenue

Cost of revenue consists primarily of amortization expense and impairment charges associated with capitalized software development costs, credit scoring fees, account linking fees, andthird-party data center costs. We expect our cost of revenue to increase in absolute dollars for the foreseeable future to the extent that our business continues to grow. We expect our cost of revenue to decrease over time as a percentage of revenue as we recognize economies of scale. However, this percentage may fluctuate from year to year in the short term.

Research and development

Research and development activities primarily relate to engineering, product management, data enhancement, and improved functionality related to our platform. Research and development expenses primarily consist of personnel related costs, including stock-based compensation, technology and facility-related expenses and contractor expense for our engineering, product management, data and other personnel engaged in maintaining and enhancing the functionality of our platform.

We expect our research and development expenses to increase in absolute dollars for the foreseeable future, primarily for increased headcount to further develop and innovate our platform. Over time, we expect research and development expenses to decrease as a percentage of revenue as our business grows and recognizes economies of scale. However, this percentage may fluctuate from period to period depending on the timing and extent of our research and development expenses.

Sales and marketing

Sales and marketing expenses include advertising and promotion costs, costs related to brand campaign fees, marketing, business operations team, and editorial personnel and related costs, including stock-based compensation.

We expect our sales and marketing expenses to continue to increase in absolute dollars for the foreseeable future, primarily to support the growth of our existing business and expansion into new verticals. Over time, we expect sales and marketing expenses to decrease as a percentage of revenue as our business grows and recognizes economies of scale. However, this percentage may fluctuate from period to period depending on the timing and extent of our sales and marketing expenses.

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General and administrative

General and administrative expenses consist of personnel related costs, including stock-based compensation, for certain of our executives as well as our legal, finance, human resources, and other administrative employees; and professional services fees.

We expect our general and administrative expenses to increase in absolute dollars for the foreseeable future primarily to support the growth of our business and our public company operations. Additional expenses may include increased headcount, enhanced systems, processes, and controls as well as increased expenses in the areas of insurance, compliance, investor relations, and professional services. For these reasons, we expect general and administrative expenses to increase as a percentage of revenue in the near term, but eventually to decrease as a percentage of revenue as our business grows and recognizes economies of scale. This percentage may fluctuate from period to period depending on the timing and extent of our general and administrative expenses.

Change in fair value of contingent consideration related to earnouts

Our recent acquisitions include earn-out provisions which require us to pay additional consideration based on the achievement of certain performance measures for a stated period after the acquisition date. We measure this contingent consideration at fair value as of the acquisition date and record it as a liability on our consolidated balance sheet. The fair value of each contingent consideration liability is remeasured at the end of each reporting period, with any changes in fair value recognized as income or expense from operations in our consolidated income statement.

Other income (expense), net

Other income (expense), net is comprised of interest income, interest expense, and other gains (losses), net. Interest income consists primarily of interest earned on our cash and cash equivalents. Interest expense consists of interest costs related to our revolving credit facility and long-term debt, including amortization of the debt premium on our long-term debt. Other gains (losses), net is primarily related to changes in the fair value of the embedded derivative in our long-term debt, as well as realized and unrealized gains and losses on foreign currency transactions and balances. Other gains (losses), net for the six months ended June 30, 2021 includes a nonrecurring gain.

Income tax provision (benefit)

Our income tax provision (benefit) consists of federal and state income taxes. As of December 31, 2020, we had federal net operating loss carryforwards (NOLs) of approximately $31.6 million, of which $13.1 million, if not utilized, will begin to expire in 2033, and the remaining $18.5 million can be carried forward indefinitely. As of December 31, 2020, we had state NOLs of approximately $17.4 million, the majority of which, if not utilized, will begin to expire on various dates beginning in 2032. In addition, we have approximately $8.8 million and $10.6 million of federal and California research and development credit carryforwards, respectively. The federal credits will start to expire in 2037, while the California credits can be carried forward indefinitely. Approximately half of our federal NOLs are acquired attributes from Fundera. The remaining carryforwards are primarily NOLs generated in 2020 due to significant tax deductions from excess tax benefits related to stock-based compensation.

Utilization of our NOLs and tax credit carryforwards, as well as our other temporary differences, is dependent upon the generation of taxable income in future periods. We consider projected future taxable income and tax-planning strategies in making this assessment. Based on our ongoing assessment of all available positive and negative evidence, including consideration of our future operating model and the expected impacts on our profitability, we believe that there is an increased likelihood that a valuation allowance will be recorded against our deferred tax assets as early as the quarter ended September 30, 2021.

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Comparison of Results of Operations

The following tables set forth our results of operations for the periods presented. The period-to-period comparisons of our results of operations have been prepared using the historical periods included in our consolidated financial statements. The following discussion should be read in conjunction with the consolidated financial statements and related notes included elsewhere in this prospectus.

Results of Operations

	Year Ended December 31,				Six Months Ended June 30,
	2019		2020		2020		2021
	(in millions)
Revenue	$	228.3	$	245.3	$	137.3	$	181.6
Costs and expenses:
Cost of revenue	16.1		21.3		10.4		13.8
Research and development (1)	46.0		50.9		24.5		27.0
Sales and marketing (1)	115.6		144.0		87.5		151.2
General and administrative (1)	22.2		28.0		13.5		17.8
Change in fair value of contingent consideration related to earnouts	—		(0.8)		—		7.7
Total costs and expenses	199.9		243.4		135.9		217.5
Income (loss) from operations	28.4		1.9		1.4		(35.9)
Other income (expense):
Interest income	1.1		0.2		0.2		—
Interest expense	(1.1)		(1.1)		(0.5)		(0.7)
Other gains (losses), net	(0.5)		(0.1)		—		1.2
Total other income (expense)	(0.5)		(1.0)		(0.3)		0.5
Income (loss) before income taxes	27.9		0.9		1.1		(35.4)
Income tax provision (benefit)	3.7		(4.4)		(2.0)		(8.6)
Net income (loss)	$	24.2	$	5.3	$	3.1	$	(26.8)

______________

(1)Includes stock-based compensation expense as follows:

	Year Ended December 31,				Six Months Ended June 30,
	2019		2020		2020		2021
	(in millions)
Research and development	$	2.2	$	3.1	$	1.4	$	2.4
Sales and marketing	1.2		1.9		0.8		2.3
General and administrative	1.6		1.4		0.8		1.8
Total	$	5.0	$	6.4	$	3.0	$	6.5

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The following table sets forth the components of our consolidated statements of operations for each of the periods presented as a percentage of revenue:

	Year Ended December 31,				Six Months Ended June 30,
	2019		2020		2020		2021
Revenue	100	%	100	%	100	%	100	%
Costs and expenses:
Cost of revenue	7		9		8		8
Research and development	20		21		18		15
Sales and marketing	51		58		63		83
General and administrative	10		11		10		10
Change in fair value of contingent consideration related to earnouts	—		—		—		4
Total costs and expenses	88		99		99		120
Income (loss) from operations	12		1		1		(20)
Other income (expense):
Interest income	—		—		—		—
Interest expense	—		(1)		—		(1)
Other gains (losses), net	—		—		—		1
Total other income (expense)	—		(1)		—		—
Income (loss) before income taxes	12		—		1		(20)
Income tax provision (benefit)	2		(2)		(1)		(5)
Net income (loss)	11	%	2	%	2	%	(15	%)

Comparison of the six months ended June 30, 2020 and 2021

Revenue

	Six Months Ended June 30,
	2020		2021		$ Change		% Change
	(dollars in millions)
Credit cards	$	48.2	$	52.8	$	4.6	10	%
Loans	38.3		64.6		26.3		69	%
Other verticals	50.8		64.2		13.4		26	%
Total revenue	$	137.3	$	181.6	44.3		32	%

Revenue increased $44.3 million for the six months ended June 30, 2021 compared to the six months ended June 30, 2020, with revenue increases across all verticals.

Credit cards revenue increased $4.6 million to $52.8 million for the six months ended June 30, 2021 from $48.2 million for the six months ended June 30, 2020, primarily driven by increased activity amid recovery from the economic impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic and higher pricing with our financial services partners.

Loans revenue increased $26.3 million to $64.6 million for the six months ended June 30, 2021 from $38.3 million for the six months ended June 30, 2020, primarily driven by increases of 94% in home mortgages revenue and 48% in personal loans revenue, both reflecting higher consumer demand for loans in the historically low interest rate environment.

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Other verticals revenue increased $13.4 million to $64.2 million for the six months ended June 30, 2021 from $50.8 million for the six months ended June 30, 2020, primarily attributable to higher SMB revenue following our acquisition of Fundera. The increase also included a 47% increase in insurance revenue, partially offset by decreases of 30% in investing revenue due to lower consumer demand for investing activities and 29% in banking revenue due to the low interest rate environment.

Cost of revenue

	Six Months Ended June 30,
	2020			2021			$ Change		% Change
	(dollars in millions)
Cost of revenue	$	10.4		$	13.8		$	3.4	33	%
Percentage of revenue	8		%	8		%

Cost of revenue increased $3.4 million, or 33%, for the six months ended June 30, 2021 compared to the six months ended June 30, 2020. The increase was primarily attributable to a $3.1 million increase in amortization expense related to capitalized software development costs and intangible assets related to our acquisitions of Fundera and KYM in the second half of 2020.

Research and development expense

	Six Months Ended June 30,
	2020			2021			$ Change		% Change
	(dollars in millions)
Research and development expense	$	24.5		$	27.0		$	2.5	10	%
Percentage of revenue	18		%	15		%

Research and development expenses increased $2.5 million, or 10%, for the six months ended June 30, 2021 compared to the six months ended June 30, 2020. The increase was primarily attributable to a $3.2 million increase in personnel-related costs for our engineering, data, and product management personnel and contractors to support our continued growth, partially offset by a $1.2 million decrease in allocated costs due to lower facilities costs from the shift to remote work due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

Sales and marketing expense

	Six Months Ended June 30,
	2020			2021			$ Change		% Change
	(dollars in millions)
Sales and marketing expense	$	87.5		$	151.2		$	63.7	73	%
Percentage of revenue	63		%	83		%

For the six months ended June 30, 2020 and 2021, our total sales and marketing expense was comprised of approximately 49% and 43% for brand marketing, respectively, and 31% and 33% for performance marketing, respectively, with the remainder for organic and other marketing expenses. We are able to adjust our marketing spend to reflect changes in external factors and consumer behavior.

Sales and marketing expenses increased $63.7 million, or 73%, for the six months ended June 30, 2021 compared to the six months ended June 30, 2020. The increase was primarily attributable to increases of $22.0 million in brand marketing expenses and $23.2 million in performance marketing expenses. The increase was also attributable to higher organic and other marketing expenses, including an $11.8 million increase in personnel-related costs due to our efforts to grow and increase our user base, and $3.1 million of amortization expense of intangible assets from our acquisitions of Fundera and KYM in the second half of 2020.

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General and administrative expense

	Six Months Ended June 30,
	2020			2021			$ Change		% Change
	(dollars in millions)
General and administrative expense	$	13.5		$	17.8		$	4.3	32	%
Percentage of revenue	10		%	10		%

General and administrative expenses increased $4.3 million, or 32%, for the six months ended June 30, 2021 compared to the six months ended June 30, 2020, primarily attributable to a $3.0 million increase in personnel-related costs due primarily to increased headcount.

Change in fair value of contingent consideration related to earnouts

	Six Months Ended June 30,
	2020			2021			$ Change		% Change
	(dollars in millions)
Change in fair value of contingent considerations related to earnouts	$	—		$	7.7		$	7.7	NM
Percentage of revenue	—		%	4		%

The change in fair value of contingent consideration in 2021 relates to our acquisitions of Fundera and KYM in the second half of 2020, and did not exist in the six months ended June 30, 2020. The fair value of the estimated contingent considerations is subject to remeasurement at each reporting date until the payments are made. See Note 1 – The Company and its Significant Accounting Policies in the notes to our consolidated financial statements for further discussion regarding how we estimated the fair value of these contingent considerations.

Other income (expense), net

	Six Months Ended June 30,
	2020			2021			$ Change		% Change
	(dollars in millions)
Interest income	$	0.2		$	—		$	(0.2)	(96	%)
Interest expense	(0.5)			(0.7)			(0.2)		25	%
Other gains (losses), net	—			1.2			1.2		NM
Other income (expense), net	$	(0.3)		$	0.5		$	0.8	NM
Percentage of revenue	—		%	—		%

Other income (expense), net increased $0.8 million for the six months ended June 30, 2021 compared to the six months ended June 30, 2020, primarily attributable to a $1.2 million increase in other gains (losses), net related to a $1.3 million nonrecurring gain, partially offset by a loss from the remeasurement of the derivative embedded in our long-term debt.

Income tax benefit

	Six Months Ended June 30,
	2020			2021			$ Change		% Change
	(dollars in millions)
Income tax benefit	$	(2.0)		$	(8.6)		$	(6.6)	341	%
Percentage of revenue	(1		%)	(5		%)

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Income tax benefit increased $6.6 million, or 341%, for the six months ended June 30, 2021 compared to the six months ended June 30, 2020. Our effective tax rate was 24.2% and (175.8%) for the six months ended June 30, 2021 and 2020, respectively. Our effective tax rate for the six months ended June 30, 2021 was higher than the U.S. federal statutory income tax rate of 21% primarily due to excess tax benefits related to stock-based compensation, and research and development credits, partially offset by non-deductible contingent consideration. Our effective tax rate for the six months ended June 30, 2020 was lower than the U.S. federal statutory income tax rate of 21% primarily due to excess tax benefits related to stock-based compensation, and research and development credits, partially offset by non-deductible stock-based compensation.

Comparison of the years ended December 31, 2019 and 2020

Revenue

	Year Ended December 31,
	2019		2020		$ Change		% Change
	(dollars in millions)
Credit cards	$	112.4	$	78.2	$	(34.2)	(30	%)
Loans	55.1		81.3		26.2		48	%
Other verticals	60.8		85.8		25.0		41	%
Total revenue	$	228.3	$	245.3	$	17.0	7	%

Revenue increased $17.0 million, or 7%, for the year ended December 31, 2020 compared to the year ended December 31, 2019, as increases of $26.2 million in loans revenue and $25.0 million in other verticals revenue were partially offset by a $34.2 million decrease in credit cards revenue.

Credit cards revenue decreased $34.2 million to $78.2 million in 2020 from $112.4 million in 2019. The decrease was primarily due to the impact of economic conditions related to the COVID-19 pandemic that caused fewer financial services partners offering credit cards choosing to market through our platform due to lower approval rates for credit cards due to the economic uncertainty in 2020.

Loans revenue increased $26.2 million to $81.3 million in 2020 from $55.1 million in 2019 primarily attributable to a 70% increase in home mortgages revenue due to higher consumer demand for mortgage loans in the low interest rate environment.

Other verticals revenue increased $25.0 million to $85.8 million in 2020 from $60.8 million in 2019, primarily attributable to a 122% increase in insurance revenue and a 54% increase in investing revenue, due to higher consumer demand for insurance and investing activities.

Cost of revenue

	Year Ended December 31,
	2019			2020			$ Change		% Change
	(dollars in millions)
Cost of revenue	$	16.1		$	21.3		$	5.2	32	%
Percentage of revenue	7		%	9		%

Cost of revenue increased $5.2 million, or 32%, for the year ended December 31, 2020 compared to the year ended December 31, 2019. The increase was primarily attributable to a $4.3 million increase in amortization expense related to capitalized software development costs and a $0.8 million increase in third-party data center costs in connection with the growth in our traffic and ongoing product and feature development.

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Research and development expense

	Year Ended December 31,
	2019			2020			$ Change		% Change
	(dollars in millions)
Research and development expense	$	46.0		$	50.9		$	4.9	11	%
Percentage of revenue	20		%	21		%

Research and development expenses increased $4.9 million, or 11%, for the year ended December 31, 2020 compared to the year ended December 31, 2019. The increase was primarily attributable to a $4.5 million increase in personnel-related costs for our engineering, data, and product management personnel and contractors to support our continued growth.

Sales and marketing expense

	Year Ended December 31,
	2019			2020			$ Change		% Change
	(dollars in millions)
Sales and marketing expense	$	115.6		$	144.0		$	28.4	25	%
Percentage of revenue	51		%	58		%

For the years ended December 31, 2019 and 2020, our total sales and marketing expense was comprised of approximately 32% and 39% for brand marketing, respectively, and 40% and 34% for performance marketing, respectively, with the remainder for organic and other marketing expenses.

Sales and marketing expenses increased $28.4 million, or 25%, for the year ended December 31, 2020 compared to the year ended December 31, 2019, primarily attributable to increases of $19.0 million in brand marketing expenses and $1.5 million in performance marketing expenses. The increase was also attributable to higher organic and other marketing expenses, including a $7.9 million increase in personnel-related costs due to our efforts to grow and increase our user base.

General and administrative expense

	Year Ended December 31,
	2019			2020			$ Change		% Change
	(dollars in millions)
General and administrative expense	$	22.2		$	28.0		$	5.8	26	%
Percentage of revenue	10		%	11		%

General and administrative expenses increased $5.8 million, or 26%, for the year ended December 31, 2020 compared to the year ended December 31, 2019, primarily attributable to a $3.1 million increase in professional and consulting services fees, a $1.6 million increase in acquisition-related expenses, and a $1.6 million increase in personnel-related costs resulting from increased headcount.

Change in fair value of contingent consideration related to earnouts

	Year Ended December 31,
	2019			2020			$ Change		% Change
	(dollars in millions)
Change in fair value of contingent considerations related to earnouts	$	—		$	(0.8)		$	(0.8)	NM
Percentage of revenue	—		%	—		%

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The change in fair value of contingent consideration in 2020 relates to our acquisitions of Fundera and Know Your Money, and did not exist in 2019. The fair value of the estimated contingent considerations is subject to remeasurement at each reporting date until the payments are made. See Note 1 – The Company and its Significant Accounting Policies in the notes to our consolidated financial statements for further discussion regarding how we estimated the fair value of this contingent consideration.

Other income (expense), net

	Year Ended December 31,
	2019			2020			$ Change		% Change
	(dollars in millions)
Interest income	$	1.1		$	0.2		$	(0.9)	(82	%)
Interest expense	(1.1)			(1.1)			—		—	%
Other losses, net	(0.5)			(0.1)			0.4		80	%
Other income (expense), net	$	(0.5)		$	(1.0)		$	(0.5)	(100	%)
Percentage of revenue	—		%	(1		%)

Other income (expense), net decreased $0.5 million, or 100%, for the year ended December 31, 2020 compared to the year ended December 31, 2019. The decrease is primarily attributable to a decrease in interest income related to lower interest rates and a decrease in other losses, net related to a $0.4 million remeasurement of the derivative embedded in our long-term debt.

Income tax provision (benefit)

	Year Ended December 31,
	2019			2020			$ Change		% Change
	(dollars in millions)
Income tax provision (benefit)	$	3.7		$	(4.4)		$	(8.1)	(219	%)
Percentage of revenue	2		%	(2		%)

Income tax provision (benefit) decreased $8.1 million, or 219%, for the year ended December 31, 2020 compared to the year ended December 31, 2019, from a provision for income tax to an income tax benefit. Our effective tax rate for the year ended December 31, 2019 was 13.2% compared to the effective tax rate for the year ended December 31, 2020 of (255.7%). The 2019 income tax expense was lower than the U.S. federal statutory income tax rate of 21% primarily due benefits from research and development credits, partially offset by nondeductible compensation and other expenses. The 2020 income tax benefit was lower than the U.S. federal statutory income tax rate of 21% primarily due to excess tax benefits related to stock-based compensation and research and development credits. The change in our effective tax rate from 2019 to 2020 was primarily due to higher excess tax benefits related to stock-based compensation in 2020 as compared to 2019.

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Non-GAAP Financial Measure

Adjusted EBITDA as we define it may not be comparable to similarly titled measures used by other companies. Because of these limitations, you should consider Adjusted EBITDA alongside other financial performance measures, including net income (loss) and our other GAAP results.

We compensate for these limitations by reconciling Adjusted EBITDA to net income (loss), the most comparable GAAP financial measure. The following table presents a reconciliation of Adjusted EBITDA for each of the periods presented:

	Year Ended December 31,						Six Months Ended June 30,
	2019			2020			2020			2021
	(in millions)
Net income (loss)	$	24.2		$	5.3		$	3.1		$	(26.8)
Depreciation and amortization	9.4			15.1			6.3			12.8
Interest expense, net	—			0.9			0.3			0.7
Income tax provision (benefit)	3.7			(4.4)			(2.0)			(8.6)
Other losses (gains), net	0.5			0.1			—			(1.2)
Loss on impairment and on disposal of assets	1.3			0.2			0.1			0.3
Change in fair value of contingent consideration related to earnouts	—			(0.8)			—			7.7
Deferred compensation related to earnouts	—			—			—			0.9
Stock-based compensation	5.0			6.4			3.0			6.5
Acquisition-related expense	—			1.6			—			0.1
Adjusted EBITDA	$	44.1		$	24.4		$	10.8		$	(7.6)
Net income (loss) margin	11		%	2		%	2		%	(15		%)
Adjusted EBITDA margin1	19		%	10		%	8		%	(4		%)

______________

(1)Represents adjusted EBITDA as a percentage of revenue.

Adjusted EBITDA decreased $19.7 million, or 45%, for the year ended December 31, 2020 compared to the year ended December 31, 2019, and $18.4 million for the six months ended June 30, 2021 compared to the six months ended June 30, 2020. The decrease in 2020 was driven by a $28.4 million increase in sales and marketing expense as we continued to invest in our business, particularly during the first half of 2020, despite slowed revenue growth due to the economic impact of the COVID-19 pandemic. The decrease for the six months ended June 30, 2021 was primarily attributable to a $63.7 million increase in sales and marketing expense as we continued to invest in our business, partially offset by a $44.3 million increase in revenue amid recovery from the economic impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic.

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Unaudited Quarterly Results of Operations Data

The following tables set forth our unaudited quarterly consolidated statements of operations data for each of the quarters indicated, as well as the percentage that each line item represents of our revenue for each quarter presented. The information for each quarter has been prepared on a basis consistent with our audited consolidated financial statements included in this prospectus, and reflect, in the opinion of management, all adjustments of a normal, recurring nature that are necessary for a fair statement of the financial information contained in those financial statements. Our historical results are not necessarily indicative of the results that may be expected in the future. The following quarterly financial data should be read in conjunction with our consolidated financial statements included elsewhere in this prospectus.

	Three Months Ended
	Mar 31, 2019		Jun 30, 2019		Sep 30, 2019		Dec 31, 2019		Mar 31, 2020		Jun 30, 2020		Sep 30, 2020		Dec 31, 2020		Mar 31, 2021		Jun 30, 2021
	(in millions)
Revenue(1)	$	55.0	$	55.0	$	61.9	$	56.4	$	90.4	$	46.9	$	51.3	$	56.7	$	90.0	$	91.6
Costs and expenses:
Cost of revenue	3.8		3.7		4.4		4.2		5.6		4.8		5.1		5.8		6.5		7.3
Research and development(2)	10.8		11.7		11.3		12.2		13.0		11.5		13.0		13.4		12.2		14.8
Sales and marketing(2)	26.6		28.6		27.0		33.4		51.0		36.5		20.9		35.6		68.6		82.6
General and administrative(2)	5.4		5.5		5.8		5.5		6.8		6.7		6.6		7.9		8.9		8.9
Change in fair value of contingent consideration related to earnouts	—		—		—		—		—		—		—		(0.8)		7.0		0.7
Total costs and expenses	46.6		49.5		48.5		55.3		76.4		59.5		45.6		61.9		103.2		114.3
Income (loss) from operations	8.4		5.5		13.4		1.1		14.0		(12.6)		5.7		(5.2)		(13.2)		(22.7)
Other income (expense):
Interest income	0.3		0.3		0.3		0.2		0.2		—		—		—		—		—
Interest expense	(0.3)		(0.3)		(0.3)		(0.2)		(0.3)		(0.2)		(0.3)		(0.3)		(0.3)		(0.4)
Other gains (losses), net	—		(0.4)		(0.1)		—		1.0		(1.0)		—		(0.1)		(0.1)		1.3
Total other income (expense)	—		(0.4)		(0.1)		—		0.9		(1.2)		(0.3)		(0.4)		(0.4)		0.9
Income (loss) before income taxes	8.4		5.1		13.3		1.1		14.9		(13.8)		5.4		(5.6)		(13.6)		(21.8)
Income tax provision (benefit)	1.4		1.0		1.9		(0.6)		1.2		(3.2)		(0.2)		(2.2)		(0.7)		(7.9)
Net income (loss)	$	7.0	$	4.1	$	11.4	$	1.7	$	13.7	$	(10.6)	$	5.6	$	(3.4)	$	(12.9)	$	(13.9)

______________

(1)Includes revenue based on product category as follows:

	Three Months Ended
	Mar 31, 2019		Jun 30, 2019		Sep 30, 2019		Dec 31, 2019		Mar 31, 2020		Jun 30, 2020		Sep 30, 2020		Dec 31, 2020		Mar 31, 2021		Jun 30, 2021
	(in millions)
Credit cards	$	29.2	$	28.2	$	30.0	$	25.0	$	36.8	$	11.4	$	13.3	$	16.7	$	22.9	$	29.9
Loans	9.6		12.5		16.3		16.7		21.7		16.6		22.8		20.2		32.3		32.3
Other verticals	16.2		14.3		15.6		14.7		31.9		18.9		15.2		19.8		34.8		29.4
Total revenue	$	55.0	$	55.0	$	61.9	$	56.4	$	90.4	$	46.9	$	51.3	$	56.7	$	90.0	$	91.6

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(2)Includes stock-based compensation expense as follows:

	Three Months Ended
	Mar 31, 2019		Jun 30, 2019		Sep 30, 2019		Dec 31, 2019		Mar 31, 2020		Jun 30, 2020		Sep 30, 2020		Dec 31, 2020		Mar 31, 2021		Jun 30, 2021
	(in millions)
Research and development	$	0.7	$	0.9	$	0.8	$	(0.2)	$	0.7	$	0.7	$	0.8	$	0.9	$	0.9	$	1.5
Sales and marketing	0.2		0.3		0.3		0.4		0.3		0.5		0.4		0.7		0.8		1.5
General and administrative	0.3		0.5		0.4		0.4		0.1		0.7		0.1		0.5		0.6		1.2
Total	$	1.2	$	1.7	$	1.5	$	0.6	$	1.1	$	1.9	$	1.3	$	2.1	$	2.3	$	4.2

The following table sets forth the components of our consolidated statements of operations for each of the periods presented as a percentage of revenue.

	Three Months Ended
	Mar 31, 2019				Jun 30, 2019				Sep 30, 2019				Dec 31, 2019				Mar 31, 2020				Jun 30, 2020				Sep 30, 2020				Dec 31, 2020				Mar 31, 2021		Jun 30, 2021
Revenue	100	%	100	%	100	%	100	%	100	%	100	%	100	%	100	%	100	%	100	%	100	%	100	%	100	%	100	%	100	%	100	%	100	%	100	%
Costs and expenses:
Cost of revenue	7		7		7		7		7		7		7		7		6		7		10		7		10		7		10		7		7		8
Research and development