What changed in this filing

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Item 1. Business

2024-02-20 compared with 2023-02-23 · 43 added, 43 removed, 308 unchanged (22% of the section changed)

2 unchanged sentences

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

At NerdWallet, we empower consumers—both individual consumers and SMBs—to make smarter financial decisions with confidence via our digital platform.

At NerdWallet, we empower consumers—both individuals and 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.

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To meet the standards of more informed consumers, financial services providers in turn must engage in healthy competition for consumer mindshare and develop better financial products, further improving the outcomes for consumers.

For 13 years, NerdWallet has strived to provide consumers with clarity for all of their financial decisions:

cutting through jargon, parsing terms and conditions, and simplifying complex ideas so consumers can make informed decisions about their money and pursue lives well-spent.

Since 2009, NerdWallet has strived to provide consumers with clarity for all of their financial decisions:

cutting through jargon, parsing terms and conditions, and simplifying complex ideas so consumers can make informed choices about their money and pursue lives well-spent.

As a mission-driven, consumer-first company, we have long had a company culture oriented towards being responsible and socially conscious.

In 2022, we published our first-ever Environmental, Social and Governance (ESG) report to formalize our commitments and highlight how we achieve our goals with integrity.

Our commitments are a natural extension of our mission and while ESG considerations have been part of the NerdWallet story since our inception, our 2022 ESG report has allowed us to articulate our vision and priorities clearly, and it will ensure we hold ourselves accountable for progress on critical ESG initiatives.

In 2023, we published our second annual Environmental, Social and Governance (ESG) report, outlining our corporate social responsibility programs, diversity, equity, and inclusion efforts, and our first environmental and sustainability strategy, specifically our Scope 1, 2, and 3 emissions.

Our commitments are a natural extension of our mission and while ESG considerations have been part of the NerdWallet story since our inception, this report allows us to articulate our vision and priorities clearly, and it ensures we hold ourselves accountable for progress on critical ESG initiatives.

Our revenue was $599.4 million and $538.9 million for 2023 and 2022, respectively, representing year-over-year growth of 11%.

We generated a net loss of $10.2 million for 2022, which decreased 76% from a net loss of $42.5 million for 2021.

We generated a net loss of $11.8 million for 2023, which increased 16% from a net loss of $10.2 million for 2022.

Industry Trends in Our Favor

Many trends are transforming the way consumers and SMBs manage their finances and several of these trends accelerated during the COVID-19 pandemic, creating tailwinds in our industry.

Many trends are transforming the way consumers and SMBs manage their finances and several of these trends accelerated in 2020 during the COVID-19 pandemic, creating tailwinds in our industry.

Consumers Manage Their Lives Digitally, and Financial Wellness is at the Forefront of This Change

Increasingly, consumers use a digital-first approach to managing their lives:

they manage appointments, book vacations, plan events and shop using apps and this has been especially true in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic.

they manage appointments, book vacations, plan events and shop using apps.

During the past several years, this digital-first approach has also permeated personal finance with consumers expecting to have the ability to manage all aspects of their financial wellness online.

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This desire to understand and feel well-informed about finances is prevalent across all generations.

Even among the newest Gen Z consumers, many of whom may not have much experience with personal finance or even own a credit card, 89% surveyed in a 2021 Tallo study said that it’s a priority for them to learn about personal finance and 75% are interested in taking personal finance classes.

Even among the newest Gen Z consumers, many of whom may not have much experience with personal finance or own a credit card, 89% surveyed in a 2021 Tallo study said that it’s a priority for them to learn about personal finance and 75% are interested in taking personal finance classes.

We have developed a consumer-first platform that empowers consumers and SMBs to make well-informed financial decisions at the right time and with confidence.

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credit cards, mortgages, insurance, SMB products, personal loans, banking, investing and student loans.

We partner with over 400 organizations, ranging from the largest financial services providers to the most disruptive startups.

We partner with hundreds of organizations, ranging from the largest financial services providers to the most disruptive startups.

This comprehensive coverage shows consumers who may be seeking guidance in one area, such as credit cards, the expertise that we provide in other relevant verticals like renters insurance and deposit accounts.

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We quickly adapt to the evolving financial interests of consumers and can easily add coverage in new areas.

Throughout 2022, our Content Nerds reinforced trust during another period of macroeconomic volatility, providing guidance across a variety of pressing topics, including the impact of interest rate hikes on credit cards, mortgages, bank accounts and personal loans;

how to save at the gas pump;

the return to travel and student loan forbearance and repaying student debt.

Throughout 2023, our Content Nerds reinforced trust by helping consumers make informed financial decisions across a variety of areas, including budgeting and spending in an inflationary environment;

finding insurance coverage in a complex marketplace;

and navigating the continued impact of interest rate hikes on credit cards, mortgages, bank accounts and personal loans, as well as volatility in student loan forbearance and repayment.

Benefits of Our Platform for Our Partners

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• Access to Consumers Who Are Ready to Transact.

While our expertise and personalized guidance is helpful for consumers at all stages of the financial decision-making process, many of the consumers that use NerdWallet are already poised to make a transaction, using NerdWallet as the final check.

While our expertise and personalized guidance is helpful for consumers at all stages of the financial decision-making process, we believe many of the consumers that use NerdWallet are already poised to make a transaction, using NerdWallet as the final check.

For our financial services partners, this leads to more engaged potential customers, who have a better understanding of our partners’ products than the average customer.

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As a result, 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.

In fact, nearly 60% of the financial services providers who won a 2022 Best-of Award promoted their designation in their own marketing efforts.

In fact, 66% of the financial services providers who won a 2023 Best-of Award promoted their designation in their own marketing efforts.

• Exposure to Consumers Seeking a Broader Range of Financial Products.

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We also believe there is significant potential for us to grow the global reach of our platform.

Our success in the United States and our strong brand give us a solid foundation to expand our international footprint in markets like the United Kingdom in 2020, Canada in 2021 and most recently, Australia.

• Vertical Integration.

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Upon integration, we combined NerdWallet’s top-of-funnel strength with Fundera’s monetization strategy, which added a recurring revenue tail.

In 2022, our SMB vertical achieved triple digit year-over-year growth as they successfully directed organic traffic through an efficient funnel.

Given this success, we furthered our vertical integration efforts in 2022 through our acquisition of On the Barrelhead, a loan matching platform that provides consumers and SMBs with product recommendations.

Similar to the vertical integration approach utilized with Fundera, we expect that by pairing On the Barrelhead’s loan matching platform with NerdWallet’s trusted brand and massive reach, we can offer our users more personalized and compelling recommendations, leading to better customer experiences and improved monetization.

In 2023, SMB products revenue grew 11% year-over-year despite a challenging loans macroeconomic environment as they successfully directed organic traffic through an efficient funnel.

Given our success in SMB, we furthered our vertical integration efforts in 2022 through our acquisition of On the Barrelhead, a loan matching platform that provides consumers and SMBs with product recommendations.

Similar to the vertical integration approach utilized with Fundera, we believe that by pairing On the Barrelhead’s loan matching platform with NerdWallet’s trusted brand and massive reach, we can offer our users more personalized and compelling recommendations, leading to better customer experiences and improved monetization.

In fact, we have seen two times the increase in our match rate with personal loans financial providers after integrating OTB technology.

• Registration and Data-Driven Engagement.

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We have made significant progress in our efforts, and since 2016, we have started converting unique users into registered users that utilize our consumer decisioning tools and increased machine learning functionality.

We had Registered Users of 8 million as of December 31, 2020, over 10 million as of December 31, 2021 and 14 million as of December 31, 2022.

Full-year Registered User revenue increased over 80% from 2021 to 2022.

We had registered users of 10 million as of December 31, 2021, over 14 million as of December 31, 2022 and over 19 million as of December 31, 2023.

We will 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.

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As a mission-driven, consumer-first company, we have long had a company culture oriented towards being responsible and socially conscious.

In 2022, we published our first-ever Environmental, Social and Governance (ESG) report to formalize our commitments and highlight how we achieve our goals with integrity.

You can find the report at https://www.nerdwallet.com/environmental-social-governance .

You can find the report at https://www.nerdwallet.com/l/environmental-social-governance .

Our commitments are a natural extension of our mission and while ESG considerations have been part of the NerdWallet story since our inception, our ESG reports allow us to articulate our vision and priorities clearly, and ensure we hold ourselves accountable for progress on critical ESG initiatives.

Our ESG strategy is founded on three pillars:

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We measure employee performance against these company values and measure employee engagement through surveys, and participation at all-hands and town hall style meetings with leadership.

We’re consistently recognized as a Fortune “Best Place to Work” due to our competitive employee benefits, commitment to employee growth and empowerment, and our flexible workplace environment.

Diversity, Equity and Inclusion

We have been consistently recognized for our competitive employee benefits, commitment to employee growth and empowerment, and our flexible workplace environment.

Diversity, Equity, Inclusion and Belonging

At NerdWallet, we aspire to provide people with the confidence they need to live their best lives—however they identify.

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For our Nerds, this means fostering an inclusive culture that allows all Nerds to be their authentic selves, grow their skills, contribute, and thrive with the confidence of belonging.

Our three-year DEI goal involves continually increasing representation among women in leadership and women in tech, and in the U.S.

across underrepresented races and ethnicities.

Our diversity, equity, inclusion and belonging (DEIB) efforts are centered around ensuring we are building a diverse organization across all business aspects and creating an inclusive culture where everyone is engaged and has access to opportunities.

Our key initiatives include:

• Offering learning sessions and resources for Nerds and managers to help build an inclusive workplace.

• Supporting 5 employee-led employee resource groups, which provide supportive communities for various employee populations and their allies:

NerdOut!, NerdParents, NerdWomen, Nerds of Color and NerdWallet Women in Data & Engineering.

• We received Plan Approved status by Black Equity at Work from Management Leadership for Tomorrow (MLT).

• Supporting eight employee-led employee resource groups, which provide supportive community and development opportunities for various employee populations and their allies:

NerdOut, NerdFamilies, NerdWomen, Allyship, Asian Nerds, Black Nerds, Latino and Hispanic Nerds, and Women in Data and Engineering.

• We began 2023 with a new bronze-level certification from Black Equity at Work from Management Leadership for Tomorrow.

This rigorous three-year route to certification features a data-driven and comprehensive plan to drive and support racial equity at NerdWallet.

• We use a third-party platform to analyze our employee salaries for gaps based on race or gender twice a year.

• Offering Learning and Activism Days to inspire and encourage Nerds to grow and give back to their communities.

In 2022, we launched our First Annual Nerds Pay It Forward Day, a dedicated volunteer day to encourage all NerdWallet employees to give back to their communities.

• Offering Learning and Activism Days to inspire and encourage Nerds to learn,grow and give back to their communities.

This year, we held two Nerds Pay It Forward events, freeing up time in support of employee volunteerism on dedicated volunteer days to encourage all NerdWallet employees to give back to their communities.

In all, Nerds donated over 1,800 hours during these events.

Talent Attraction, Recruitment and Retention

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Attracting and retaining highly skilled, diverse talent is a key component of our burgeoning diversity, equity and inclusion efforts, and is absolutely critical to our success as a business and to fully realizing NerdWallet’s mission.

Once employees are at NerdWallet we invest in their well-being and development offering competitive compensation and benefits and opportunities for career growth.

• Training, Learning and Development - In line with our Relentless Self-Improvement value, we encourage our employees to seek out professional development opportunities and we provide them with a yearly education stipend.

In addition, we provide in-house opportunities for career development, including in-depth training as part of our New Manager Lab and our Career Accelerator Program (CAP) and Leadership Empowerment Accelerator Program (LEAP) aimed to increase representation of underrepresented races and ethnicities, women in leadership and women in tech and propel underrepresented women into leadership positions.

Once employees are at NerdWallet we invest in their well-being and development offering competitive compensation and benefits, opportunities for career growth, and inclusion and belonging programming.

In addition, we provide in-house opportunities for career development, including a job shadowing program, career conversations, cohort-based learning, on-demand courses, and in-depth training as part of our Career Accelerator Program (CAP) and Leadership Empowerment Accelerator Program (LEAP) aimed to increase representation of underrepresented races and ethnicities, women in leadership and women in tech and propel underrepresented women into leadership positions.

• Compensation - NerdWallet offers market-competitive compensation to attract employees and a pay-for-performance philosophy to engage and retain our employees.

We want our employees to feel invested in the future of NerdWallet by offering all full-time employees equity-based compensation upon hire and through annual performance equity grants.

• Comprehensive Healthcare and Other Benefits - In order to attract, engage and retain our employees, we offer a wide array of benefits to help achieve life balance:

◦ Comprehensive healthcare including medical, dental, vision, life and disability insurance plans;

◦ Flexible paid time off and flexible work schedules;

We want our employees to feel invested in the future of NerdWallet by offering the majority of full-time employees equity-based compensation upon hire and through annual performance equity grants.

• Comprehensive Benefits and Perks - In order to attract, engage and retain our employees, we offer a wide array of benefits and perks to promote their health and well-being, including:

◦ Medical, dental, vision, life and disability insurance plans;

◦ Flexible paid vacation and sick time off and flexible work schedules;

◦ Mental health benefits and Company mental health days off in addition to an annual week-long Company shutdown at the end of the calendar year;

◦ Remote-first work environment;

◦ Generous parental leave;

◦ Parental leave;

◦ Country-specific retirement or pension plans, with a match for U.S.

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◦ Employee Stock Purchase Plan (ESPP);

◦ Access to certified financial planners;

◦ Access to financial wellness guidance from certified financial planners;

◦ Referral bonus program for recruiting new Nerds;

◦ Charitable matching program, matching of up to $1,000 of employee donations per calendar year;

◦ Charitable matching program and volunteer time off, and;

◦ Access to online and automated legal services.

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Compared sentence by sentence after normalising whitespace, quotation marks, case and digits, so re-formatting and restated figures do not read as changed language. Wording changes appear as one removal and one addition. The current filing and the prior one are authoritative.

What changed 10-K

Item 1. Business