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Item 1. Business

2026-02-25 compared with 2025-02-19 · 187 added, 326 removed, 43 unchanged (92% of the section changed)

NerdWallet provides trustworthy financial guidance to consumers and small and mid-sized businesses (SMBs).

NerdWallet, Inc.

(NerdWallet, the Company, we, our, or us) provides consumers and small and mid-sized businesses (SMBs) with trusted guidance across a broad range of finance topics through a digital platform that integrates independent editorial content, comparison tools, data-driven product marketplaces, and access to regulated financial services offered through our subsidiaries.

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 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.

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, we believe the need for trustworthy and knowledgeable financial guidance increases.

Our objective remains the same:

Serve as a trusted financial ecosystem that consumers and SMBs can rely on to learn about various financial topics, shop for products, connect their data and receive data-driven nudges.

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 United Kingdom (UK), Canadian, and, more recently, Australian markets, with further international expansion as an opportunity for future growth.

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 access to 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.

Through our platform, our financial services partners can reach a substantial audience with millions of consumers and SMBs visiting every month.

After doing research on our platform, these consumers are better informed about the financial decision they’re about to make and often primed and ready to transact.

When consumers are more informed about their financial options, they make the appropriate decisions for their needs with confidence, increasing their lifetime value to financial services providers as customers.

We have also received feedback from our financial services partners that our users ’ approval rates can be significantly higher than those applying through other channels.

Plus, as consumers’ smart money moves expand their options, they are eager to explore additional opportunities and products they are now eligible for, driving further demand for NerdWallet’s financial services partners.

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.

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 2024, we published our annual Environmental, Social and Governance (ESG) report, outlining our corporate social responsibility programs, diversity, equity, and inclusion efforts, and our environmental and sustainability strategy and emissions.

Our platform enables users to compare financial products, access educational resources, receive personalized insights, and connect with third-party providers across credit cards, banking, insurance, lending, investing, wealth management, and other financial categories.

We generate revenue primarily through referral fees, lead generation, and partner-based monetization, as well as through revenue derived from brokering and advisory services.

Our business model is designed to be partner-neutral and to support transparent consumer and SMB choice by offering side-by-side comparisons and insightful information supported by editorial standards.

NerdWallet operates in the United States, Canada, and the United Kingdom.

We are a remote-first company with our primary corporate offices located in San Mateo, California and Scottsdale, Arizona, and we maintain hub offices in several major metropolitan areas across the United States.

Our global subsidiaries support localized content, compliance oversight, product integrations, and technology development.

The Company’s platform comprises three primary components:

• Editorial and Content Publishing —Consumer and SMB financial education, tools, calculators, guides, and research published under the “NerdWallet” brand across web, mobile, and third-party channels.

• Marketplace and Referral Services —Tools that enable users to compare, pre-qualify for, or connect with third-party providers of credit cards, consumer loans, small business loans, insurance, mortgages, financial services, and related products.

These services include those provided through Fundera, NerdWallet Insurance Services, NerdWallet Advisory, and NerdWallet Compare.

• Financial Services —Brokerage and advisory services provided by our insurance agency, loan and mortgage brokerages, and investment advisory subsidiaries.

We serve millions of monthly users who rely on our platform to make informed financial decisions.

Our technology, data infrastructure, and partner relationships enable us to deliver personalized experiences, facilitate financial product applications, and help both consumers and SMBs navigate complex financial products.

Our revenue was $836.6 million and $687.6 million for 2025 and 2024, respectively, representing year-over-year growth of 22%.

We generated net income of $30.4 million for 2024, as compared to a net loss of $11.8 million for 2023.

Recent Acquisition

In October 2024, we expanded our presence in the mortgage space with the acquisition of Next Door Lending LLC (NDL), a mortgage brokerage specializing in home purchase and refinancing solutions.

NDL provides a wide range of loan products, including conventional, Fair Housing Authority (FHA), Department of Veterans Affairs (VA), and U.S.

Department of Agriculture (USDA) home loans, designed to meet the diverse financial needs of borrowers.

As a mortgage broker, NDL focuses on personalized loan matching, helping clients navigate home financing options by evaluating creditworthiness and offering tailored guidance on loan structures.

Borrowers can choose from fixed and adjustable-rate mortgages based on their financial goals.

Through NDL, we connect consumers with wholesale mortgage lenders, providing competitive rates and flexible terms.

As of December 31, 2024, NDL is licensed to operate in 25 states, further strengthening our ability to serve homebuyers and homeowners nationwide.

Industry Trends in Our Favor

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 historical businesses.

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.

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.

To meet this consumer demand, traditional financial services providers have established digital interfaces and are continually adding new functionality.

At the same time, successful fintech companies are proliferating and setting new standards for digital experiences.

These new players are responding to changing consumer expectations by disrupting nearly every aspect of personal finance and offering a wide range of faster, better and cheaper digital services, continually altering the competitive landscape.

By focusing on distinct personal financial products, fintech companies have unbundled personal finance and have provided value that conventional financial services providers cannot, often improving and expanding consumers’ choices and therefore, overall financial wellness.

Consumers Are Inundated With Choice and Complexity, but Unbiased Financial Guidance is Difficult to Find

While digital access and an increasing number of fintech companies are making it easier to invest, make payments and even take out a loan, the explosion of market participants also makes it increasingly difficult and time consuming for consumers to sift through all of the options to determine which product is best suited to their personal financial needs.

Financial products and services are complex and consumers are seeking ways to compare and better understand their options.

Many consumers do not have a trusted financial advisor to help them navigate this complexity and instead seek advice online.

Unfortunately, finding trustworthy financial guidance online can be challenging.

Fees are not always transparent, there is not a standard route to achieve financial literacy and creative marketing can leave consumers feeling overwhelmed.

Consumers Want to Know They’ve Made the Right Choice in Their Financial Lives

Consumers want to take control of their financial well-being, ensure they’re getting the right deal, understand exactly what they’re signing up for and have confidence in their decisions.

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

A 2024 Experian study revealed that 66% of consumers said they'd like to expand their knowledge of credit and personal finance, with even higher percentages among Gen Z (80%) and Millennials (79%).

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.

The cornerstone of our platform is consumer trust in the independent, objective, and relevant guidance we provide, free of charge.

Given it is incredibly difficult for any one person to be deeply knowledgeable across all areas of personal finance, we have an award-winning editorial team that functions as the “brains” behind our guidance.

Our writers and editors, many of whom have joined us from notable publications, cover specific verticals day in and day out, and, as a result, are deeply knowledgeable about the financial areas they cover, producing high-quality guidance.

The work of our editorial team as a whole is not only a key reason consumers trust our brand and turn to us for many of their financial questions, it is also the foundation of our personalized guidance and our “nudges.” The guidance developed by our editorial team is codified by our product team to create the insights surfaced across our platform.

It’s through this unique combination of human-powered guidance and machine learning capabilities that we can provide consumers with high-quality and personalized insights, which help us advance toward being a trusted financial ecosystem, a single platform consumers and SMBs rely on to learn about various financial topics, shop for products, connect their data and receive data-driven nudges.

This trusted guidance has enabled us to build a large, well-informed audience, many of whom are ready to transact.

Accordingly, we have become an attractive partner for financial services providers wanting to reach these high-value consumers.

Today, our platform stretches across many financial products, including credit cards, mortgages, insurance, SMB products, personal loans, banking, investing and student loans.

Our platform aligns the interests of consumers and SMBs seeking financial guidance and products with the financial services providers that offer these products.

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 the financial services providers.

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;

• 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 and SMBs

Our platform is designed to empower consumers and SMBs to gain clarity about their financial decisions, help them make optimal 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, developed by our editorial team which is not influenced by monetization.

One of our core values is “Consumer, Company, Team, Self.” Consistent with that value, we uphold rigorous editorial standards, and all of our articles, reviews and recommendations are written by our independent editorial team.

The value of our brand and long-term relationships with consumers are more important to us than any short-term benefit we may derive from any transaction conducted on our platform.

We believe that the result of this approach is the direct, ongoing, trusted relationship we have with our users.

• Using Simplicity and Transparency to Enable Well-Informed Decisions.

We write our articles to appeal to everyone, ranging from the casual reader to someone looking to understand more complex details on a topic.

Regardless of the consumer need, we bring a level of clarity to help consumers make sense of even the most complex financial topics.

Our content is delivered in a variety of digestible formats, and our comparisons provide transparency on both price and features, given that a particular financial product may appeal to different consumers for different reasons.

For example, while some consumers may be looking for the lowest interest rate on a credit card, others may never plan to carry a balance and instead may be looking for the best cash back or rewards offering.

• Acting as a Trusted Guide and Navigator, Providing Personalized Guidance.

Democratizing access to financial guidance is only half of our vision;

the other half is to make it frictionless for consumers to make financial decisions.

We built our platform to appeal both to consumers looking to “do it themselves” and those looking for more support managing their financial well-being.

We make it easy for our registered users to stay on top of their money by centralizing many of their product decisions in one place.

A registered user is defined as an individual who has created an account on the NerdWallet platform, and is a standalone metric calculated independently from whether an individual accesses our platform in a given period.

Consumers can get a holistic view of their finances, and home in on specific details about their spending and saving patterns across accounts.

By combining insights from our award-winning editorial team with our machine learning capabilities, 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 a variety of financial verticals, including credit cards, mortgages, insurance, SMB products, personal loans, banking, investing and student loans.

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.

Our guidance, however, is not limited to areas with existing partner relationships or those that we monetize.

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

Throughout 2024, 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 current interest rate landscape, as well as volatility in student loan forbearance and repayment.

Benefits of Our Platform for Our Partners

We bring our financial services partners well-matched and well-informed consumers.

These consumers also frequently have desirable characteristics—they have higher credit scores and maintain higher levels of investable assets—making them highly attractive for our financial services partners.

We have received feedback from financial services partners that our users ’ approval rates can be significantly higher than those applying through other channels .

Benefits that we provide to our financial services partners include:

• Huge Audience and Reach.

We reach millions of consumers and SMBs a year.

We also over-index on attracting consumers with high credit scores who are inundated with choices and seek an independent third party to help them find the right product for their distinct needs.

These individuals receive many offers for financial products because they are often the most attractive customers for financial services providers as they tend to drive long-term value.

We believe we drive strong conversion both on and off our platform.

For example, tracking tests with our financial partners in our credit cards vertical have shown that on average, for every transaction that happens through NerdWallet, one or more additional transactions with a user occur with the partner as a result of the user previously engaging with our platform.

This encourages our financial services partners to continue promoting their products through NerdWallet, as we are a channel for them to acquire attractive customers.

• 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, 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.

We believe that these high-quality matches can result in higher customer lifetime values for our partners.

In addition to providing our financial services partners with attractive potential customers, we do so just as consumers’ purchase intent is the highest.

Because of this, some financial services partners choose to market special or unique offers first or only through NerdWallet.

• Positive Brand Association.

All of our articles, reviews and recommendations are written by our independent editorial team, and because of this, we believe consumers trust our assessment of the financial services and products offered on our platform.

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, over 100 partner advertising campaigns leveraged the best-of badge, underscoring the weight that a NerdWallet evaluation carries.

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

Given the breadth of our expertise, consumers are able to use our platform for multiple facets of their financial well-being beyond their initial transactions.

Through the wide range of guidance that we offer, consumers are exposed to relevant products outside of the one they are researching at a given time.

For example, a consumer researching credit cards may see a relevant article regarding mortgages, then remember that article when they are in the market for a mortgage at a later date.

As a result, consumers are exposed to our financial services partners’ products at various points in their financial journey, increasing the value of our platform both to consumers and financial services partners.

Our Growth Pillars

We believe our ability to execute against our strategy and invest in our three pillars of growth- “Land and Expand,” “Vertical Integration,” and “Registrations and Data-Driven Engagement”- helps us advance toward becoming a trusted financial ecosystem.

With our trusted financial ecosystem, we will provide a single platform that consumers and SMBs can rely on to learn about various financial topics, shop for products, connect their data and receive data-driven nudges.

This will provide our users with more clarity and confidence around their finances and help grow and diversify our business through reoccurring engagement and revenue.

• Land and Expand.

Our trusted brand and organic reach keep us well-positioned to land and expand in new financial areas and geographies.

As we look to add capabilities within our existing verticals and enter new verticals, our brand paves the way for us to meet consumer demand.

By improving the quality of our guidance within existing verticals, we believe we can enhance the experience for our users and continue to build recurring revenue streams.

Our approach for new vertical expansion is well-defined—provide trusted content and tools to attract organic traffic, then leverage our brand and marketing expertise to accelerate growth.

Expansion to new verticals allows us to address more of our consumers’ needs and increases our potential for cross-selling, thereby making existing verticals and marketing channels more efficient.

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 UK in 2020, Canada in 2021 and Australia in 2022.

• Vertical Integration.

Our distinct ability to combine our trusted brand and massive top-of-funnel reach with best-in-class user experiences helps us vertically integrate in areas and topics that capture re-occurring revenue.

For example, in 2020, we acquired Fundera, Inc, (Fundera) to improve our offering for SMBs.

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

In 2024 and 2023, SMB products revenue grew 9% and 11%, respectively, 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 (OTB), 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 OTB’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.

Additionally, in late 2024 we acquired NDL, a mortgage brokerage, to provide our consumers with more hands-on guidance through the mortgage shopping experience.

• Registration and Data-Driven Engagement.

Critical to our aspiration of delivering consumers and SMBs with a trusted financial ecosystem is our ability to register and engage users—in turn allowing us to drive repeat visits, collect data and provide users with unique insights via nudges.

We are focused on growing the traffic and engagement on our platform, as well as increasing our number of registered users, who have a lifetime revenue value five times greater than our non-registered users and more than twice the transactions and sessions, on average.

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 14 million as of December 31, 2022, over 19 million as of December 31, 2023 and 25 million as of December 31, 2024.

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.

With better machine learning, we believe our recommendations and contextual nudges will encourage repeat engagement and user registration on our platform.

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, too.

This, in turn, attracts new partners and new financial products to the platform.

More partners and more products serve to further increase the success rates of consumers using our platform, all of which drives our growth.

This creates a unique value proposition for all constituents in our ecosystem, making our platform more valuable.

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 $36 billion in 2024 and has been growing at double digit rates annually, according to eMarketer.

As digital advertising spend continues to increase as a percentage of overall advertising spend, we expect our addressable market opportunity to grow along with it.

We believe the services provided by financial advisors, insurance agencies, loan brokers, mortgage 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.

Our Product Offerings

The NerdWallet platform is designed to empower consumers at every stage of their financial journey through our personalized offerings.

Whether consumers have a specific money question, are shopping for the “best” financial product or want to proactively stay on top of their finances, we provide financial guidance to meet their varied needs.

We offer guidance across eight verticals:

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

We believe our unbiased and comprehensive approach to financial guidance and personalized insights provides a competitive advantage for NerdWallet.

This advantage will compound as we further expand our product offerings and as we continue to apply the power of machine learning to further refine our personalized insights.

To ensure we are able to meet distinct consumer needs and preferences, our financial guidance and products are delivered in a variety of ways, organized in the following core categories:

Learn, Shop and Manage.

Our mission is to provide clarity for all of life’s financial decisions, and we provide resources that make even the most complicated financial questions and topics simple to understand.

The resources consumers can access on our platform include articles, calculators, videos and podcasts.

We do this with our award-winning editorial team of Nerds who create and curate NerdWallet’s house views on a wide variety of personal finance topics.

This trusted guidance has enabled us to build a large, well-informed audience, many of whom are ready to transact.

Accordingly, we have become an attractive partner for financial services providers wanting to reach these high value consumers.

Today, our platform stretches across many verticals, including credit cards, mortgages, insurance, SMB products, personal loans, banking, investing and student loans.

These capabilities help consumers make educated decisions about financial products, while allowing us to provide our financial services partners with informed consumers ready to transact.

NerdWallet’s platform and intuitive user interface help consumers find the products that best match their searches, instilling confidence in their financial decisions.

Consumers can easily explore available products, filter results according to their specific needs, sort by NerdWallet rating and narrow down their options with the help of various tools, including side-by-side comparisons, “Best-of” lists and financial product reviews.

In our credit card and loans verticals, we also offer the ability to personalize our recommendations by matching consumers to the appropriate lender for their unique needs.

NerdWallet makes 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” for example, letting consumers know that the improvement in their credit score means that they could qualify for lower auto insurance rates.

As a result, NerdWallet has become a one-stop-shop for consumers to track, manage and plan their financial futures.

Our Technology

We built our scalable technology platform to serve both the growing number of consumers searching for financial products digitally and the increasing number of financial service providers looking to reach consumers with the right characteristics for any given product.

Additionally, beyond enabling all elements of our consumer “Learn, Shop, Manage” product experience, our technology is key to keeping our platform secure and compliant.

The key capabilities and features of our platform include Content Management, Partner Access, Recommendation Engine and Personal Financial Management.

Content Management

Our content management platform leverages structured data components to showcase our financial guidance to consumers at scale.

By codifying our editorial team’s house views, we are able to dynamically recommend relevant content using machine learning for consumers seeking guidance and thus increase product matches.

Our personalized article recommendations lead to higher click-through rates, ultimately increasing transactions on our platform.

Partner Access

Our platform manages over 400 f inancial services partners across eight verticals.

We have a team focused on ingesting and aggregating data from our financial services partners across our verticals and financial products to surface and apply product details and attributes for matching with consumers.

Our partner data ingestion, quality and compliance processes ensure accuracy and scalability across our platform.

We are able to onboard new partners quickly with significantly lower partner marketing compliance risk—for example, inaccurate displays of rewards, fees, or interest rates.

Our partner platform also includes the ability to integrate prequalification experiences and targeting engines.

Recommendation Engine

Our proprietary recommendation engine uses machine learning to match consumers to financial products and partners that meet their unique needs.

Examples include, but are not limited to:

• For credit card products, our approval odds model determines a consumer's likelihood of getting approved, which ultimately saves them time, enables users to avoid unnecessary hard credit checks, and drives stronger conversion rates for our financial services partners.

• For some loans products, we operate a prequalification system that assists consumers through the underwriting process.

Additionally, OTB’s loan-matching platform unlocks more personalized and compelling recommendations, leading to better customer experiences and improved monetization.

Our technology is flexible enough to engage with financial services partners in ways that align with each industry’s unique requirements and business practices.

Personal Financial Management

The logged-in experience for registered users serves as a one-stop shop for consumers to track, manage and maximize their finances, all in one place.

We analyze first-party data, third-party data from financial account aggregators and credit reports to understand our users’ unique financial situations.

Our recommendation engine surfaces insights and actions that users can take to make smart money moves, such as improving their credit scores, maximizing their credit card rewards or earning a higher savings interest rate.

Additionally, our credit score predictive modeling can estimate the impact of financial decisions on consumers’ credit scores, thus enhancing the insights and recommendations that we can provide to them.

Security and Privacy

As a consumer-first company that is building a trusted brand, we are both committed and mandated to adhere to the strictest privacy standards.

We believe our commitment to data protection and privacy, as well as our superior insights and guidance, are the primary reasons why consumers provide us with personal data on our platform.

We practice a security-first approach to product development, with our security team involved in building our products, features, platforms and infrastructure from the beginning.

This approach allows us to build with security as a core requirement rather than treating it as an afterthought.

Our security team has a wide range of expertise, from corporate security to network security to application security, giving us the ability to design security into everything that we do, from product development to vendor selection to the tools that we use in our day-to-day work as Nerds.

Our marketing function is a critical way we reach and build trust with consumers and is an important growth lever for our business.

Our marketing strategy is diversified across brand marketing, organic and performance marketing, customer relationship management and communications.

Importantly, these strategies build on and reinforce one another, optimizing for building consumer trust and managing spend efficiently.

Brand marketing campaigns, which encourage consumers to turn to NerdWallet with all of their money questions, increase awareness and drive top-of-funnel interest, while amplifying the effectiveness of our organic and performance marketing channels.

All of our marketing programs and channels are measured by a data-driven media mix model to determine results and effectively allocate marketing investments to drive maximum business impact.

We have a substantial organic and performance marketing presence that drives high-intent traffic.

Our organic marketing program leverages our substantial, proprietary body of trusted guidance coupled with expertise in SEO and public relations, to reinforce NerdWallet as a trusted authority in personal finance.

Our performance marketing is also highly optimized for profitable revenue growth.

NerdWallet’s editorial team is made up of writers and editors who are deeply knowledgeable about personal finance.

Our editorial team provides well-researched guidance across all areas of personal finance and for various stages of consumers’ financial journeys, from basic information about saving for retirement to timely guidance about applying for unemployment to in-depth product reviews.

Our writers are frequently featured providing guidance in print, online and broadcast media such as The New York Times and Good Morning America, among others.

Our communications team oversees the execution of consumer, product and corporate communications to both reinforce NerdWallet as a trusted brand and support our organic growth strategies by generating considerable media and syndication coverage, particularly for NerdWallet’s consumer finance spokespeople.

We believe our marketing strategy will position NerdWallet as the trusted brand of choice in personal finance, improve traffic acquisition at all levels of the funnel, drive engagement with users, and enable us to scale quickly across new consumer finance verticals and geographies.

Environmental, Social and Governance

Our mission, to provide clarity for all of life’s financial decisions, is rooted in our belief that both individual consumers and SMBs should be empowered to make financial decisions with confidence.

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

In 2024, we published our third annual 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.

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

Our ESG strategy is founded on three pillars:

• Achieving Our Vision, or the work we do to create a world in which everyone makes financial decisions with confidence.

We know that not everyone has access to the information they need to make confident decisions, that not everyone is adequately served by financial incumbents, and addressing these inequities is endemic to our DNA.

• Investing in Our Nerds, or the work we do to provide our talented Nerds with an equitable and inclusive workplace in which they can thrive professionally and personally.

Our Nerds are eager to make an impact, and we want to empower them in pursuit of our shared and individual goals.

• Building a Socially Responsible Business, or the work we do to ensure that our business practices protect and improve the lives of our consumers, our Nerds, and our wider world.

We generated net income of $48.7 million and $30.4 million for 2025 and 2024, respectively, representing year-over-year growth of 60%.

Our Platform and Ecosystem

Our platform offers consumers and SMBs clear, reliable information about financial products and services, along with tools and guidance to support informed financial decisions.

We combine independent editorial content, product data, user-specific insights, and technology-enabled tools to deliver personalized user experiences across desktop and mobile environments.

Our ecosystem integrates content, marketplaces, and regulated financial services under a unified architecture that supports discovery, comparison, application, referral, and engagement across multiple financial categories.

Content and Tools

Our editorial team produces independent reviews, product comparisons, articles, guides, calculators, and other resources covering a broad range of personal finance topics.

These materials are designed to help users understand financial products, evaluate tradeoffs, and identify solutions that may be appropriate for their circumstances.

We maintain editorial standards intended to ensure accuracy, clarity, and impartiality.

Our tools include credit score monitoring, spending and asset accumulation insights, pre-qualification workflows, mortgage, loan, and financial calculators, and decision-support questionnaires.

Marketplace Infrastructure

We operate multiple financial product marketplaces that enable users to compare products or connect with third-party providers and some of the financial service activities that we offer.

These marketplaces leverage partner integrations, real-time data, and matching algorithms to facilitate product discovery and application experiences.

Our core marketplace categories include:

• Credit cards

• Consumer loans

• Small business financing

• Home lending products and services

• Insurance products and providers

• Banking products and deposit accounts

• Investment and retirement products

• Financial advisor matching

These marketplaces generate revenue primarily through referral fees, partner marketing arrangements, and lead-generation compensation structures.

Financial Services

We support certain financial service activities through wholly-owned and indirectly-owned subsidiaries that provide services under applicable regulatory regimes.

• Next Door Lending, LLC (NDL) provides mortgage brokerage and origination services to consumers.

NDL does not service mortgage loans or hold mortgage loans for more than 30 days.

• NerdWallet Advisory LLC is an SEC-registered investment adviser that operates our financial advisor marketplace.

It provides matching, referral, and lead-generation services to consumers seeking full-service investment advisers.

NerdWallet Advisory does not provide fiduciary investment advisory services, personalized investment advice, investment recommendations, or discretionary or non-discretionary investment management services to consumers.

• NerdWallet Wealth Partners, LLC is an SEC-registered investment adviser that provides fiduciary investment advisory services, including financial planning and discretionary investment management.

These services are delivered through dedicated advisory personnel and operate separately from our content and marketplace functions.

NerdWallet Wealth Partners is structured to mitigate potential conflicts of interest with its clients and, among other things, does not offer proprietary financial products, sponsor investment funds, or act as a custodian for client assets.

• NerdWallet Insurance Experts, LLC is an insurance agency that provides brokerage services to assist consumers in obtaining and comparing insurance products, including facilitating connections with licensed carriers or agents, data collection through online discovery questionnaires, and limited origination support.

NerdWallet Insurance Experts does not bind coverage, administer policies, collect premiums, or adjust claims.

Technology and Data Capabilities

Our platform relies on proprietary technology that supports data ingestion, partner integrations, user segmentation, product ranking, and personalized insights.

We use machine learning and rules-based systems to improve marketplace matching, predict user intent, and optimize performance for both users and partners.

Our infrastructure is built to support high-volume traffic, multi-region content delivery, and secure handling of consumer and SMB information.

We invest in data quality, compliance monitoring, partner-performance analytics, and product metadata to maintain accurate comparisons and transparent disclosures.

Partner Ecosystem

We work with a broad range of financial institutions, including banks, lenders, credit card issuers, insurance carriers, broker-dealers, investment advisers, and other providers.

Our relationships include integration of application programming interfaces (APIs), data-exchange connections, marketing partnerships, and agreements governing referrals or introductions.

We maintain processes to monitor partner practices, regulatory changes, and compliance requirements applicable to referral arrangements and advertising partnerships.

User Engagement and Distribution Channels

Users interact with our platform through web and mobile properties, email communications, APIs, partner-hosted integrations, and third-party search and social media channels.

Our mobile app provides additional tools for tracking finances, credit performance, spending patterns, and progress toward financial goals.

We supplement direct channels with performance marketing, organic search, and partnerships that extend the reach of our content and marketplaces.

Products and Services

We offer a broad set of products and services designed to help consumers and SMBs make informed financial decisions and connect with third-party providers of financial products.

Our offerings span content publishing, technology-enabled tools, financial product marketplaces, mortgage brokering services, and regulated investment advisory services.

Content, Tools, and Consumer and SMB Education

We publish editorial content, reviews, product comparisons, research articles, financial guides, calculators, and decision-support tools that cover a wide range of consumer and SMB finance topics, including credit, lending, insurance, banking, investing, retirement planning, taxes, and household budgeting.

This content is produced independently and is intended to help users understand financial products, evaluate potential options, and take appropriate actions.

Our tools include credit score monitoring, spending insights, personalized recommendations, application checklists, calculators, and product-matching questionnaires.

Marketplaces and Referral Services

Our platform includes technology-enabled marketplaces that allow users to compare financial products, access pre-qualification tools, or connect with third-party providers.

We generate revenue from referral fees, lead-generation arrangements, partner marketing programs, and related compensation models.

Our key marketplace categories include:

• Credit Card Marketplace —Offers comparison tools, pre-qualification workflows, and introductions to issuing partners.

• Personal Loan Marketplace —Provides comparison, rate-shopping tools, and introductions to lending partners.

• Small Business Financing Marketplace (Fundera) —Assists SMBs with lender matching, product comparisons, intake support, and introductions to financing partners.

• Banking Marketplace —Enables users to discover deposit products, high-yield savings accounts, certificates of deposit, and other banking solutions.

• Insurance Marketplace (NerdWallet Insurance Services, Inc.) —Provides quote comparison tools and introductions to carriers and licensed insurance professionals.

• Financial Advisor Marketplace (NerdWallet Advisory LLC) —Connects consumers with independent investment advisers through matching, referral, and lead-generation services.

NerdWallet Advisory does not provide personalized investment advice or portfolio management services to users.

• Other Consumer and SMB Finance Marketplaces —Includes debt-related education and enrollment support services, student loans, auto loans, and other emerging financial product categories.

These marketplaces provide consumers and SMBs with transparent comparisons and streamlined access to third-party providers while enabling partners to acquire users efficiently.

Mortgage Brokering (Next Door Lending LLC)

We conduct mortgage brokering activities through NDL, a wholly-owned subsidiary licensed under applicable state laws.

NDL provides consumer introductions, matching, and application routing to third-party mortgage lenders and supports certain intake and disclosure facilitation activities.

NDL does not service mortgage loans or hold mortgage loans for more than 30 days.

Wealth Management (NerdWallet Wealth Partners, LLC)

We provide traditional wealth management services through NerdWallet Wealth Partners, LLC, an SEC-registered investment adviser that offers financial planning, discretionary investment management, and related advisory services.

Insurance (NerdWallet Insurance Experts, LLC)

We provide insurance agency services where producers assist consumers in obtaining and comparing quotes and connecting with licensed carriers.

NerdWallet Insurance Experts, LLC does not bind coverage, administer policies, collect premiums, or adjust claims.

Data, Analytics, and Integration Services

We support certain partners with data-driven insights, API integrations, product metadata, and analytical tools that improve product performance, underwriting decision workflows, customer acquisition efficiency, and user experience.

These offerings are incidental to our core marketplace services and are used to support partner integrations and optimize referral quality.

Customer Support and Ancillary Services

We provide customer support, onboarding assistance, and intake-related services in connection with our marketplaces, mortgage brokering operations, insurance quote procurement, and advisor-matching services.

These activities include clarifying application processes, collecting required information, or facilitating the routing of consumers and SMBs to third-party providers.

We do not underwrite financial products, make credit decisions, service loans, bind insurance coverage, administer insurance policies, collect premiums, or adjust claims.

Employees and Human Capital

NerdWallet is defined by its vision, a world where everyone makes financial decisions with confidence.

We attract people who are passionate about bringing our mission to life and inspired by the possibility of making real change—to brighten futures, ask hard questions, usher in solutions and provide our consumers with clarity and confidence.

As of December 31, 2025, we had over 650 full‑time employees, of which approximately 95% are located throughout the United States and 5% are located internationally.

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We consider our relationship with our employees to be good and have not experienced any work stoppages.

Our Culture and Engagement

Our Nerds are the key to our success and the reason we believe we will achieve our mission;

they are also one of our most crucial areas of investment.

At the core of our Nerdy culture are our values.

They’re not just words written on a wall or printed on t-shirts, but lived and breathed every day by every Nerd:

(1) Consumer, Company, Team, Self;

(2) Relentless Self-Improvement;

(3) Ownership;

(4) Informed Risk-Taking;

and (5) Open, Candid and Constructive.

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 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.

For our consumers, this means building their financial confidence.

For our consumers and SMBs, this means building their financial confidence.

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 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 empowered to do their best work.

Belonging 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 empowered to do their best work.

Our key initiatives include:

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

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

NerdOut, NerdFamilies, NerdWomen, Nerd Allies, Asian Nerds, Black Nerds Network, Viva Nerds, and Women in Data and Engineering.

• We began 2024 with a new silver-level certification from Black Equity at Work from Management Leadership for Tomorrow.

We also committed to the Hispanic Equity at Work Certification.

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

• We support seven employee-led employee resource groups (ERGs) that provide community, connection, and development opportunities for employees and their allies:

NerdOut, NerdFamilies, NerdWomen, Asian Nerds, Black Nerds Network, Viva Nerds, and Women in Data and Engineering.

While each ERG centers on a specific community, all groups are open to all Nerds.

• We use a third-party platform to analyze our employee salaries to ensure pay parity.

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

• In addition, we offer a variety of engagement opportunities 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.

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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.

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

In addition, we provide in-house opportunities for career development, including a job shadowing program, career conversations, cohort-based learning, on-demand courses, and a career readiness series as part of our Career Accelerator Program (CAP) designed to invest in our early to mid-career talent in individual contributor roles and provide them with the tools and resources needed to thrive at NerdWallet.

• 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 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;

◦ Parental leave;

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

• Development and Operational Readiness - Aligned with our Relentless Self-Improvement value, we encourage employees to pursue ongoing professional growth.

We support this through in-house development opportunities, including job shadowing and asynchronous learning via our learning management system (LMS, Juno), which offers both in-house and external trainings focused on upskilling and career readiness.

We have intentionally moved away from a centralized learning and development model in favor of learning by doing and targeted enablement aligned with business needs.

This approach is complemented by flexible, asynchronous training opportunities, with a particular focus on strengthening manager capabilities and supporting the responsible integration of AI into day-to-day operations.

• Compensation - NerdWallet offers market-competitive compensation to attract employees.

Our pay-for-performance philosophy aligns employee rewards with individual and company performance.

To further align employees with the long-term success of the Company, we grant equity-based compensation to the majority of full-time employees upon hire and through annual performance equity grants.

• Comprehensive Benefits and Perks -To attract, engage and retain employees and support their overall health and well-being, we provide a comprehensive benefits and perks program, which includes medical, dental, vision, life and disability insurance;

flexible paid vacation and sick time, flexible work schedules, and a sabbatical program;

mental health benefits and a Company shutdown at the end of the calendar year;

a Remote-first work environment with wellness and remote-work stipends;

parental leave and adoption assistance, country-specific retirement or pension plans, including a matching contribution to U.S.

401(k) plan contributions;

◦ Employee Stock Purchase Plan (ESPP);

◦ Access to financial wellness guidance from certified financial planners;

◦ Referral bonus program for recruiting new Nerds;

◦ Charitable matching program and volunteer time off, and;

◦ Access to online and automated legal services.

an Employee Stock Purchase Plan (ESPP) ;access to financial wellness guidance from certified financial planners;

spot and referral bonus opportunities;

and a charitable matching program and volunteer time off.

We have built a scaled and highly differentiated online platform.

We face competition from both online and offline financial guidance providers in four primary categories:

We face competition from both online and offline financial guidance providers in the following primary categories:

• Financial advisors, agents, and brokers who provide guidance and expertise as part of their offerings;

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• Online search engines :

Financial services providers spend advertising budgets with online search engines, primarily Google AdWords, as many consumers turn to Google to answer their personal finance questions;

Financial services providers spend advertising budgets with online search engines, primarily Google AdWords, as many consumers and SMBs turn to Google to answer their finance questions;

• Online marketplaces including Bankrate, Credit Karma, LendingTree and Zillow.

We believe we compete favorably due to the breadth and depth of our financial guidance, the trust we’ve built with our consumers, and our brand, organic traffic, convenience and simplicity.

We believe we compete favorably due to the breadth and depth of our financial guidance, the trust we’ve built with our consumers and SMBs, and our brand, organic traffic, convenience and simplicity.

Intellectual Property

We believe that our intellectual property rights are valuable and important to our business.

We rely on trademarks, copyrights, trade secrets, license agreements, intellectual property assignment agreements, confidentiality procedures, non-disclosure agreements, and employee and contractor non-disclosure and invention assignment agreements to establish and protect our proprietary rights.

Though we rely in part upon these legal and contractual protections, we believe that factors such as our skills and the ingenuity of our employees, the quality of our guidance to consumers and the functionality and frequent enhancements to our platform are larger contributors to our success in the marketplace.

We have trademark rights in our name, our logo, and other brand indicia, and have trademark registrations for select marks in the U.S.

and many other jurisdictions around the world.

We also have registered domain names for websites that we use in our business.

We intend to pursue additional intellectual property protection to the extent we believe it would be beneficial and cost-effective.

Despite our efforts to protect our intellectual property rights, they may not be respected in the future or may be invalidated, circumvented, or challenged.

For additional information, see the section titled “Risk Factors—Risks Related to Our Technology, Security and Intellectual Property—Failure to protect or enforce our intellectual property rights could harm our business, financial condition and results of operations.”

We market and provide our products and services in heavily regulated industries through a number of different channels across the U.S., the UK and Canada.

As a result, aspects of our business are potentially subject to a variety of U.S., UK and Canadian laws and regulations, including:

• The Truth-in-Lending Act (TILA), the Equal Credit Opportunity Act (ECOA), the Fair Credit Reporting Act (FCRA), Fair and Accurate Credit Transactions Act of 2003, the Fair Housing Act (FHA), the Real Estate Settlement Procedures Act (RESPA), and similar state laws, all of which place certain restrictions on the manner in which mortgages and other consumer loans are marketed and originated, and some of which impose restrictions on the amount and nature of fees that may be charged to lenders and real estate professionals for providing or obtaining consumer loan requests;

• The Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act (Dodd-Frank Act), which imposes, among other things, a broad prohibition on Unfair, Deceptive and Abusive Acts and Practices (UDAAPs) in connection with consumer financial products and services, limitations on fees charged by mortgage lenders, and requirements related to mortgage disclosures and is enforced by the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) and state regulatory authorities;

• The Federal Trade Commission Act (FTC Act), which, among other things, imposes a broad prohibition on Unfair and Deceptive Acts and Practices in or affecting commerce, and is enforced by the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) and Canada’s Competition Act;

• State laws that impose prohibitions on Unfair, Deceptive and Abusive Acts and Practices similar to the Dodd-Frank Act and FTC Act’s prohibitions;

• Federal, state and provincial licensing laws;

• Federal and state laws, which impose restrictions on activities conducted through telephone, mail, email, mobile device or the Internet, including the Telemarketing Sales Rule, the Telephone Consumer Protection Act, the Controlling the Assault of Non-Solicited Pornography and Marketing Act of 2003, and Canada’s Anti-Spam Legislation;

• Federal and state laws relating to offering of credit repair services to consumers, including such laws that impose restrictions on the usage and storage of consumer credit information such as the Credit Repair Organizations Act and FCRA;

• Federal and state laws and regulations relating to data privacy and security, such as the Gramm-Leach-Bliley Act (GLBA) and the California Consumer Privacy Act (CCPA), which impact how we collect, use, store, share and otherwise process personal information of consumers and other individuals;

• Recent state laws regulating data privacy and security such as the CCPA;

• Foreign laws and regulations relating to data privacy and security, such as the UK General Data Protection Regulation, the UK Data Protection Act 2018 and the General Data Protection Regulation 2016/679, each of which regulates our collection, processing, disclosure and other use of data relating to identifiable living individuals (personal data).

In addition to the U.S.

federal, state and local laws described above, U.S.

federal and state agencies have broad oversight, supervision, and enforcement authority over our mortgage business.

Because we are not a depository institution, we must comply with state licensing requirements to conduct our business.

We will incur significant ongoing costs to comply with licensing and other legal requirements under the Secure and Fair Enforcement for Mortgage Licensing Act of 2008 (SAFE Act) and the Dodd‑Frank Act, among others.

As required by state law, we have additional licenses to enable us to conduct lead generation activities, and operate our loan platforms that facilitate consumer and business loans.

The licensing process includes the submission of an application to the relevant state agency, a character and fitness review of key individuals and an administrative review of our business operations.

Our mortgage brokerage business through NDL is subject to a variety of regulatory and contractual obligations imposed by federal and state authorities, as well as by wholesale lenders and investors with whom we work to facilitate mortgage transactions.

This includes compliance with regulations enforced by the CFPB, which oversees residential mortgage loan origination practices under the Dodd-Frank Act.

The CFPB has rulemaking authority over key federal consumer protection laws applicable to mortgage brokers and lenders, including TILA, RESPA, ECOA, and FCRA.

Additionally, NDL must comply with state mortgage broker licensing requirements, as well as regulatory expectations set by lenders, insurers, and government-backed loan programs such as FHA, VA, and USDA.

We rely on a combination of trademark, copyright, trade secret, and other intellectual property laws, as well as contractual protections, to establish and protect our proprietary rights.

These protections include trademark and copyright registrations, license and intellectual property assignment agreements, confidentiality procedures, and non-disclosure and invention assignment agreements with employees and contractors.

The scope and duration of protection afforded to our intellectual property vary by type of intellectual property and by jurisdiction.

We hold trademark rights in our name, logo, and other brand indicia, including trademark registrations in the U.S.

and certain foreign jurisdictions, and we maintain registered domain names for websites used in our business.

We also rely on unregistered rights and common law protections in the U.S.

and other jurisdictions.

We may pursue additional intellectual property protection where we believe it to be appropriate and cost effective.

Despite these efforts, our intellectual property rights may be challenged, invalidated, circumvented, or misappropriated.

For additional information, see “Risk Factors—Risks Related to Our Technology, Security and Intellectual Property—Failure to protect or enforce our intellectual property rights could harm our business, financial condition and results of operations.”

Our operations are subject to a variety of federal, state, provincial, and international laws and regulations that govern financial services, consumer protection, data privacy, lead generation, advertising, brokering, and investment advisory activities.

The regulatory frameworks applicable to us vary by jurisdiction and by the nature of the services offered through our subsidiaries.

Cross-Jurisdictional Compliance

We market and provide our products and services across the United States, the United Kingdom, Canada, and other jurisdictions.

As a result, aspects of our business are subject to a broad range of consumer financial protection, advertising, licensing, data privacy, and communications laws.

These include regulatory requirements governing the marketing, brokering, and referral of mortgages and other consumer and SMB financial products;

restrictions on the use and disclosure of consumer and SMB credit information;

prohibitions on unfair, deceptive, or abusive acts or practices;

rules governing communications with consumers and SMBs through telephone, email, mobile applications, and digital channels;

and laws regulating the collection, processing, storage, and protection of personal data.

These frameworks may impose requirements on our marketing practices, partner relationships, data usage, licensing obligations, and the manner in which we facilitate introductions to financial services providers.

Content and Publishing Activities

NerdWallet, Inc.

produces independent editorial content and financial tools intended for general informational purposes.

With regard to investment-related content and tools, our activities are conducted under the “publisher’s exemption” from the definition of “investment adviser” under the Investment Advisers Act of 1940.

We do not provide personalized investment advice, make individualized recommendations, or tailor content to the investment needs of specific users.

Our publishing activities may be subject to federal and state consumer protection and advertising laws, including prohibitions on unfair, deceptive, or abusive acts or practices.

Investment Advisory Activities

We conduct investment advisory activities through two SEC-registered investment advisers:

NerdWallet Advisory LLC —Operates a financial advisor marketplace that provides matching, referral, and lead-generation services to consumers.

NerdWallet Advisory does not provide personalized investment advice, financial planning, or portfolio management services.

NerdWallet Advisory is subject to the Investment Advisers Act and its rules, including requirements related to advertising, solicitation, disclosures, compliance programs, recordkeeping, and regulatory examinations.

NerdWallet Wealth Partners, LLC —Provides traditional wealth management services, including financial planning, discretionary investment management, and ongoing advisory relationships.

NerdWallet Wealth Partners is subject to the full scope of the Investment Advisers Act, including fiduciary duties, compliance program requirements, custody and trading rules (as applicable), advertising and marketing requirements, recordkeeping obligations, and regulatory examinations.

Mortgage Brokering Activities

Our mortgage brokering activities, conducted through NDL, are subject to extensive federal and state regulation.

NDL must comply with consumer financial protection laws governing mortgage advertising, loan origination practices, disclosures, fair lending, and compensation.

The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) has rulemaking and enforcement authority over key federal statutes applicable to mortgage brokers, including those governing mortgage disclosures, fees, and fair lending.

NDL must also maintain state mortgage broker licenses and meet related requirements under the Secure and Fair Enforcement for Mortgage Licensing Act (SAFE Act) and analogous state statutes.

In addition, NDL is subject to regulatory expectations and contractual requirements imposed by wholesale lenders, insurers, credit providers, and government-backed loan programs.

Insurance-Related Activities

Through certain subsidiaries, including NerdWallet Insurance Services, Inc.

and NerdWallet Insurance Experts, LLC, we facilitate insurance quote procurement and consumer introductions to licensed insurance providers.

These activities are subject to state insurance licensing, producer oversight, advertising standards, and related compliance obligations.

We do not bind coverage, adjust claims, administer policies, or collect premiums.

Marketing, Advertising, and Lead-Generation Regulation

Our marketing and referral practices are subject to federal, state, and provincial laws governing advertising, endorsements, disclosures, and financial promotions.

These include the Federal Trade Commission Act, state and federal laws prohibiting unfair, deceptive, or abusive acts or practices, Canada’s Competition Act, the UK’s Financial Services and Markets Act 2000 as amended, and rules applicable to compensated endorsements and lead-generation activities.

Our registered investment adviser subsidiaries are subject to the SEC’s marketing and solicitation rules, including requirements governing testimonials, endorsements, third-party ratings, and referral arrangements.

Consumer Protection and Financial Services Regulation

Our marketplaces and referral activities for credit cards, consumer loans and debt solution offerings, small business loans and financing options, banking and investment products, mortgages, insurance, and other consumer financial products are subject to oversight by federal and state regulators, including the CFPB.

Our facilitation of referrals, comparisons, and application workflows may implicate licensing, consumer protection, fair lending, and advertising regulations

Data Protection, Privacy, and Cybersecurity

We are subject to U.S., UK, Canadian, and other international data privacy and security laws, including the Gramm-Leach-Bliley Act (GLBA), the California Consumer Privacy Act (CCPA), as amended by the California Privacy Rights Act (CPRA), and other state-level comprehensive privacy laws, the UK General Data Protection Regulation (UK GDPR), and the UK Data Protection Act 2018.

These laws govern the collection, use, processing, disclosure, and protection of personal information.

We maintain administrative, technical, and physical safeguards designed to protect consumer and SMB data.

Regulatory expectations in this area continue to evolve, and future changes may increase compliance obligations and costs.

We are monitoring newly enacted and emerging laws and regulations related to artificial intelligence (AI), and based on our current assessment, our existing AI use cases do not fall within the scope of these laws.

Nevertheless, we have initiated an AI governance framework to guide the responsible development and use of AI as the regulatory landscape continues to evolve.

International Regulation

Our operations in the United Kingdom and Canada are subject to local consumer protection, financial promotion, licensing, data privacy, advertising, and corporate compliance requirements.

Certain marketplace and referral activities may be subject to additional financial services regulations depending on jurisdiction.

Available Information

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We make available on or through our investor relations website certain reports and amendments to those reports that we file with or furnish to the SEC in accordance with the Exchange Act.

These include our Annual Reports on Form 10-K, our Quarterly Reports on Form 10-Q and our Current Reports on Form 8-K.

These include our Annual Reports on Form 10-K, our Quarterly Reports on Form 10-Q and our Current Reports on Form 8-K, and all amendments to those reports.

We make this information available on our investor relations website free of charge as soon as reasonably practicable after we electronically file the information with, or furnish it to, the SEC.

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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