NerdWallet, Inc. (NRDS): Business Model Canvas [Dec-2025 Updated]

You're digging into how a major financial comparison site is evolving, and honestly, the picture for NerdWallet, Inc. as of late 2025 is far more interesting than just clicks-for-cash. After years of building trust through editorial integrity, the company is now locking in profitability by vertically integrating, evidenced by loan revenue hitting $39.6 million in Q3 2025, fueled by acquisitions like Next Door Lending. With a forecasted 2025 Adjusted EBITDA between $141 million and $145 million, this isn't just a content play anymore; it's a disciplined financial services platform. Dive into the full Business Model Canvas below to see exactly how they connect their trusted brand to these new revenue streams.

NerdWallet, Inc. (NRDS) - Canvas Business Model: Key Partnerships

You're looking at the core of how NerdWallet, Inc. monetizes its trusted guidance, which is heavily reliant on its network of partners. This is where the referral compensation flows in, making the quality and quantity of these relationships critical to the bottom line.

Financial institutions and lenders for referral compensation

NerdWallet, Inc. partners with financial institutions and lenders, receiving payment when you apply for and receive one of their products. The banking vertical, which is a key area for these partnerships, showed significant strength, with revenue up 96% year-over-year in Q3 2025. For context on the offers driving this traffic, checking account bonus offers in December 2025 could range between $100 and $3,000. For example, Chase Total Checking® offered a $300 bonus with a $500 minimum direct deposit requirement. Still, the credit card segment, another major referral area, saw revenue decline by 24% year-over-year in Q1 2025, landing at $38.0 million for that quarter.

The company ended Q1 2025 with a cumulative registered user base of over 26 million people, providing a large audience for these partners.

Insurance carriers for auto, life, and pet product matching

The insurance vertical is a massive driver for NerdWallet, Inc., with revenue reaching $74.0 million in Q1 2025, marking a 246% increase compared to the prior year. This growth was specifically noted as being driven by strong performance in auto insurance products as carriers expanded their budgets. By Q3 2025, the insurance business revenue was up 3% year-over-year, showing continued, albeit slower, growth.

The overall company revenue for Q1 2025 was $209.2 million, showing how central the insurance partnership revenue is to the total.

Mortgage wholesale lenders for the NerdWallet Mortgage Experts concierge service

Following the acquisition of Next Door Lending, NerdWallet, Inc. launched the NerdWallet Mortgage Experts experience in January 2025. This concierge service connects shoppers with experts to compare rates across 60+ wholesale lenders. This integrated model offers twice the upfront unit economics compared to older mortgage referral methods. The mortgage segment showed encouraging signs, with mortgage revenue increasing by 23% year-over-year in Q1 2025. The Next Door Lending contribution accounted for approximately 1 percentage point of the total NerdWallet revenue growth in that first quarter.

Small and mid-sized business (SMB) product providers

Partnerships in the SMB segment, which includes business loans and credit cards, generated $28.9 million in revenue during Q1 2025. However, this represented a 5% decrease year-over-year, primarily due to lower business loan originations. By Q3 2025, the SMB product vertical saw a year-over-year decline, though personal loans revenue was up 91% in the same quarter.

Data and technology providers for AI-driven personalization

NerdWallet, Inc. is seeing a high degree of referral traffic from AI sources, which is a key indicator of its relationship with data and technology providers shaping modern search. Compared to its competitive set, NerdWallet, Inc. receives a really high share of referral traffic from AI sources. This technological integration supports the overall business, which projects a full year 2025 non-GAAP operating income between $91 million and $95 million.

Here's a look at the revenue segmentation based on the latest reported quarter:

Revenue Category	Q1 2025 Amount (USD)	Year-over-Year Change (Q1 2025)	Q3 2025 Amount (USD)	Year-over-Year Change (Q3 2025)
Total Revenue	$209.2 million	29% increase	$215 million	12% increase
Insurance Revenue	$74.0 million	246% increase	N/A	3% increase
Credit Cards Revenue	$38.0 million	24% decrease	Declined	Declined
Emerging Verticals (incl. Banking)	$44.3 million	15% increase	N/A	Banking up 96%
Loans Revenue (incl. Mortgage)	$24.0 million	12% increase	Personal Loans up 91%	N/A
SMB Products Revenue	$28.9 million	5% decrease	Declined	Declined

The company's non-GAAP operating income guidance for Q3 2025 was between $23 million and $27 million, but actual Q3 non-GAAP operating income reached $41 million.

• Partnerships with financial institutions are governed by editorial guidelines that state compensation does not affect product ratings.
• The company ended Q3 2025 with a cash balance of $121 million.
• Over the last 4 quarters leading up to Q3 2025, NerdWallet, Inc. generated over $85 million of adjusted free cash flow.
• The company expects full year 2025 non-GAAP operating income to be $91 million to $95 million.
• NerdWallet, Inc. is focused on expanding shopping experiences to below prime consumers to offset organic search headwinds.

Finance: draft 13-week cash view by Friday.

NerdWallet, Inc. (NRDS) - Canvas Business Model: Key Activities

You're looking at the core engine driving NerdWallet, Inc.'s financial results as of late 2025. The key activities are centered on content creation, traffic acquisition, platform maintenance, and strategic vertical expansion.

Generating high-quality, expert financial content and editorial reviews

The foundation of NerdWallet, Inc.'s business is its content engine. This activity supports the entire ecosystem, from organic search visibility to brand trust. The company maintains a high volume of content updates; for instance, hundreds or maybe thousands of pages are regularly updated to keep information fresh and authoritative. NerdWallet's content efforts are crucial because, as of October 2025, Google organic search still accounts for 45.62% of the site's total traffic, which reached 20.44M visits that month. This content generation directly fuels the comparison marketplace.

Optimizing organic search (SEO) to drive high-intent traffic

SEO is a non-negotiable, high-stakes activity for NerdWallet, Inc., given its reliance on unpaid search traffic. While the company has seen success, with search traffic close to its highest ever according to some reports, it is actively navigating significant challenges. For example, credit cards revenue, a core SEO-driven vertical, decreased by 25% year-over-year in Q3 2025, primarily due to continued headwinds in organic search traffic. Similarly, SMB products revenue was down 15% year-over-year in Q3 2025, also attributed to organic search pressures. In Q3 2025, monthly unique users were down 7% year-over-year, reflecting these search visibility challenges. Conversely, paid search traffic dropped significantly, down by -69.72% as of October 2025, making the organic focus even more critical.

Developing and maintaining the comparison shopping marketplace platform

This activity involves the continuous development and maintenance of the technology that connects users with financial products. The platform's performance directly impacts revenue conversion. NerdWallet, Inc.'s Q3 2025 revenue hit $215.1 million, up 12% year-over-year, demonstrating the platform's ability to convert traffic despite SEO softness. The platform's success is visible across its product categories, as shown in the Q3 2025 breakdown:

Product Category	Q3 2025 Revenue (Millions USD)	Year-over-Year Growth
Insurance	$70.9	3% increase
Loans	$39.6	66% increase
Emerging Verticals	$46.9	83% increase
Credit Cards	$34.1	-25% decrease
SMB Products	$23.6	-15% decrease

Executing performance marketing and brand advertising campaigns

To diversify traffic sources away from pure organic search, NerdWallet, Inc. executes targeted marketing campaigns. The company's focus on operational efficiency in Q3 2025 resulted in a non-GAAP operating income of $41 million. This efficiency included a strategic pause on brand spending; the company underspent on brand marketing by $8 million versus its target during the quarter as it reevaluated its brand strategy. The company expects to return to more typical levels of brand spend in Q4. Performance marketing gains, alongside operational efficiency, helped drive the Q2 2025 non-GAAP operating income to $21 million, up $23 million year-over-year from operational efficiency improvements.

Integrating acquired businesses, like Next Door Lending, for vertical services

Vertical integration through acquisition is a key activity to deepen customer relationships and capture higher-margin revenue streams. The acquisition of Next Door Lending, which closed on October 1, 2024, is a prime example. The upfront deal consideration was $1 million in cash, with an additional $3.5 million in performance-based earnout awards scheduled through 2028. This integration immediately impacted the Loans segment; for Q1 2025, mortgage revenue increased 23% year-over-year, with Next Door Lending contributing about 1 percentage point to overall revenue growth that quarter. The Loans revenue category itself saw a substantial 66% year-over-year increase in Q3 2025, partly driven by the integrated mortgage operations. The company launched the NerdWallet Mortgage Experts experience, a concierge service, as a direct result of this integration, which management noted offers twice the upfront unit economics compared to traditional mortgage referral models.

NerdWallet, Inc. maintained a strong balance sheet, reporting a cash balance of $105 million as of Q2 2025, supporting these strategic investments.

• The company is focusing on encouraging users to explore more products, with newer features like cash management accounts showing higher usage.
• The Q3 2025 GAAP income from operations was $34.4 million.
• Adjusted EBITDA for Q3 2025 reached $53.6 million.
• The company's Q2 2025 revenue was $187 million.

NerdWallet, Inc. (NRDS) - Canvas Business Model: Key Resources

The highly-trusted NerdWallet brand and editorial integrity

You're building on a foundation of trust, which is a massive asset in finance. NerdWallet is available for consumers in the U.S., United Kingdom, Canada, and Australia. The company's editorial team determines its ratings. For the 2025 Best-Of Awards, 44 seasoned journalists and subject-matter experts were involved in the research. They researched over 1,000+ financial products to select the winners. NerdWallet writers use primary, trustworthy sources, including peer-reviewed studies, government websites, academic research, and expert interviews to inform their work.

Proprietary user data and machine learning (ML) algorithms for matching

NerdWallet provides a data-driven app to help consumers stay on top of their finances. The company has shifted its internal focus away from the Monthly Unique Users (MUU) metric, which has been inversely correlated with revenue for some time. Management noted that stability in search traffic and AI-enhanced search modules is expected to support a return to MUU growth by early 2026. A May 2025 survey conducted by The Harris Poll on behalf of NerdWallet included a sample of 2,093 U.S. adults ages 18 and older. The company is vertically integrating to offer consumers more hands-on guidance in the SMB and mortgages space.

Extensive library of high-ranking financial content and tools

The content library is a core asset, providing consumers free access to expert content and comparison shopping marketplaces. The company's efforts in Q1 2025 included expanding its footprint in the travel rewards category and diversifying top-of-funnel with new organic channels. The platform offers tools like calculators and resources designed to help users plan ahead, as seen in mortgage-related support materials. The company is focused on enhancing its core business with new capabilities and experiences that create more direct, engaged relationships with consumers and SMBs.

The technology platform and mobile application infrastructure

The technology platform supports comparison shopping marketplaces and the data-driven app. The platform is designed to help users make financial decisions with confidence. The company is investing in vertical integration and user engagement as part of its long-term growth strategy. The platform supports operations across the U.S., UK, Canada, and Australia. The company is seeing encouraging signs in mortgages, supported by the acquisition of Next Door Lending.

A strong balance sheet with no long-term debt, which is defintely a plus

The balance sheet as of the end of Q4 2025 shows a position with significant cash reserves and relatively low overall debt. The total debt figure is quite small compared to total assets and equity, supporting the perception of financial strength. Here's the quick math from the period ending September 30, 2025 (TTM data):

Financial Metric (Millions USD)	Amount
Total Assets	$492.80
Total Liabilities	$90.40
Total Shareholder Equity	$402.4
Cash & Short-Term Investments	$120.6
Total Debt	$5.80
Long-Term Liabilities	$16.0

The company has more cash and short-term investments at $120.6M than its total debt of $5.80M. The debt-to-equity ratio stands at 1.4%. The full-year 2025 non-GAAP operating income guidance was raised to a range of $55 million to $66 million.

• Q1 2025 Revenue: $209.2 million.
• Q3 2025 Revenue: $215 million.
• P/E Ratio (as of Dec 1, 2025): 14.62.
• Stock 52-Week High (Dec 1, 2025): $15.34 USD.
• Adjusted Free Cash Flow (LTM as of Q1 2025): $58 million.

NerdWallet, Inc. (NRDS) - Canvas Business Model: Value Propositions

You're looking at how NerdWallet, Inc. delivers tangible value to its users, which is the core of its business model. The primary draw is providing clarity and confidence for all major financial decisions. Honestly, the need is huge; a survey from April 2025 showed that over half of Americans-51%-regularly stress out about money, and nearly 79% had concerns about their current financial situation. NerdWallet, Inc. positions itself as the answer to that anxiety.

The foundation of this value is free access to objective, independent comparison tools and expert guidance. You get this expert content and the comparison marketplaces without paying a subscription fee; the platform is funded by affiliate links and partnerships. This is key because users are actively seeking better deals; for instance, in 2025, a significant portion of Americans set goals to pay down debt, with 35% aiming to pay off or pay down debt overall.

For users needing hands-on help, the value proposition includes concierge-level support for complex products like mortgages. Following the acquisition of Next Door Lending, NerdWallet launched the "NerdWallet Mortgage Experts" experience. This service lets consumers compare rates across 60+ wholesale lenders while getting personalized support. That level of depth in a complex area like mortgages is a strong differentiator.

You also get time and money savings by comparing multiple financial products in one place. While NerdWallet, Inc. retired its Monthly Unique Users (MUU) metric to focus on relationship quality, the sheer scale of its operations, evidenced by its financial performance, shows the volume of users benefiting from these comparisons. The company is available to consumers in the U.S., United Kingdom, Canada, and Australia.

The platform also offers personalized product recommendations via a data-driven app. This is part of their strategy to enhance user engagement through vertical integration. The success of this strategy is visible in their financial results, particularly in the banking vertical, which saw revenue growth in Q1 2025.

Here's a quick look at the financial scale of NerdWallet, Inc. that underpins these value propositions as of late 2025:

Metric	Q1 2025 (Ended March 31)	Q3 2025
Total Revenue	$209.2 million	$186.90 million
Insurance Revenue	$74.0 million (Up 246% YoY)	$70.9 million (Up 3% YoY)
Loans Revenue	$24.0 million (Up 12% YoY)	$39.6 million (Up 66% YoY)
Non-GAAP Operating Income	$9.3 million	$41.3 million (Up 81% YoY)
Adjusted EBITDA	$21.1 million	$53.6 million (Up 44% YoY)

The growth in the Loans segment, up 66% year-over-year to $39.6 million in Q3 2025, is heavily tied to the mortgage expertise you receive. Meanwhile, the banking products, part of the Emerging Verticals, soared 83% year-over-year to $46.9 million in Q3 2025, showing strong user adoption of those tools.

The company's focus on profitability is also a value proposition for long-term users, as management raised the full-year 2025 non-GAAP operating income guidance to a range of $55 million to $66 million.

You can see the value proposition in action through user goals, too. For example, 40% of Americans set at least one savings goal for 2025. NerdWallet, Inc. provides the tools to help them achieve that, whether it's comparing high-yield savings accounts offering up to 5.00% APY or finding the right debt consolidation product.

• Free access to comparison tools for credit cards, loans, and mortgages.
• Expert content used to inform financial decisions.
• Concierge support for mortgages across 60+ lenders.
• Focus on helping users meet goals like saving (e.g., 40% of Americans set a savings goal in 2025).
• Platform available in the U.S., UK, Canada, and Australia.

Finance: draft 13-week cash view by Friday.

NerdWallet, Inc. (NRDS) - Canvas Business Model: Customer Relationships

You're looking at how NerdWallet, Inc. manages its connection with millions of users seeking financial guidance. For the vast majority, the relationship is designed to be high-volume and low-touch, relying on scale and automation. This is evident in their operational focus; for instance, in Q3 2025, the company generated total revenue of $215.1 million, up 12% year-over-year, while simultaneously underspending on brand marketing by $8 million as they reevaluated creative strategy, planning to return to typical spend levels in Q4.

Automated self-service via the free website and mobile application forms the bedrock of this model. This is where the high-volume traffic is processed, converting anonymous visitors into potential customers for partners. The platform's core value proposition is delivered through comparison tools and educational content, which is free to the user. This efficiency is key to their profitability, as evidenced by the Q3 2025 non-GAAP operating income reaching $41 million, aided by improved efficiency in performance marketing.

Data-driven engagement through personalized financial insights and alerts is how NerdWallet, Inc. deepens the relationship with users who move beyond simple comparison shopping. The success in certain verticals shows this is working well for high-intent users. For example, Emerging Verticals revenue, primarily driven by banking products, surged by 83% year-over-year in Q3 2025, reaching $46.9 million. Similarly, Loans revenue, which includes personal loans and mortgages, was up 66% year-over-year to $39.6 million.

The company is actively investing in technology to make these automated interactions feel more personal. This AI-driven personalization is central to their strategy, and the results are showing up in referral channels. CEO Tim Chen noted that in Large Language Model (LLM) referrals, NerdWallet is cited most in its competitive set, and these referrals show higher conversion rates than traditional organic traffic.

Direct human interaction is reserved for high-value, complex transactions, exemplified by the NerdWallet Mortgage Experts service. This concierge service, launched in January 2025 following the Next Door Lending acquisition, allows consumers to compare rates across 60+ wholesale lenders with personalized support. This high-touch channel is structured for superior economics; NerdWallet, Inc. reports this model offers twice the upfront unit economics compared to traditional mortgage referral models.

Brand trust built on editorial independence and transparent partner disclosure is the intangible asset that drives users to the platform in the first place. While the company's core content is independent, they are transparent about compensation. For instance, in their mortgage lender reviews, they state that some featured lenders are advertising partners, but this does not influence their evaluations or star ratings. This trust is critical, especially as they manage headwinds in search traffic for less transactional content; credit card revenue fell 25% year-over-year to $34.1 million in Q3 2025 due to these search challenges.

The high-volume, low-touch relationship for most users is the engine that funds the higher-touch services and brand investment. The sheer scale of the platform is what allows for the operational leverage seen in their balance sheet, ending Q3 2025 with a cash balance of $121 million and generating over $85 million of adjusted free cash flow over the trailing twelve months.

Here's a quick look at how the relationship intensity varies across the main revenue drivers as of Q3 2025:

Segment	Q3 2025 Revenue ($M)	Year-over-Year Growth	Primary Relationship Model
Insurance	70.9	+3%	Automated Self-Service
Emerging Verticals (Banking)	46.9	+83%	Data-Driven Engagement
Loans (Personal & Mortgage)	39.6	+66%	Mixed (Automated to Direct Expert)
Credit Cards	34.1	-25%	High-Volume, Low-Touch

The relationship strategy is clearly bifurcated, aiming to capture the broad audience efficiently while upselling complex needs to human experts:

• The platform serves millions of users, with historical data showing Monthly Unique Users (MUUs) at 19 million in Q4 2024, though management is focused on quality over raw traffic now.
• The core user journey is designed for immediate product comparison and conversion, which is why performance marketing efficiency is a key focus area.
• The Mortgage Experts service represents a deliberate move to capture higher lifetime value through a dedicated, human-supported funnel.
• The company is actively managing the trade-off between broad, search-driven educational traffic (which saw declines) and high-intent, monetizable traffic (which is seeing strong growth in Banking and Loans).

Finance: draft Q4 2025 cash flow projection based on expected return to typical brand spend by next week.

NerdWallet, Inc. (NRDS) - Canvas Business Model: Channels

You're looking at how NerdWallet, Inc. gets its financial guidance and product offers in front of users as of late 2025. The strategy clearly leans heavily on owned digital properties, but they're making big moves to lock users into their ecosystem, especially via the app.

NerdWallet Website (Primary Traffic Driver via Organic Search)

The website remains the core engine for top-of-funnel acquisition. The dominance of organic search is clear, which means search engine optimization (SEO) and content quality are key operational metrics for this channel. For October 2025, nerdwallet.com pulled in 20.44M total visits.

The traffic composition shows the reliance on search engines:

• Organic Search accounted for 45.62% of total traffic.
• Direct traffic followed at 22.88%.

User engagement metrics for that period show an average visit duration of 05:42 and users viewing 2.39 pages per visit. Still, the bounce rate was relatively high at 66.81%. This suggests the site is excellent at capturing initial intent but needs to convert more visitors to deeper engagement or product marketplaces.

NerdWallet Mobile Application for Ongoing User Engagement

NerdWallet, Inc. is actively shifting focus to the mobile application as the primary destination for deeper, ongoing user relationships. This is a strategic move to build direct, engaged relationships, which is a stated focus for 2025. They made concrete changes to support this, deprecating parts of the logged-in web experience in the first half of 2025 specifically to enhance the mobile app.

The results of this focus are visible in their registered user base growth. As of the first quarter of 2025, the cumulative registered user base stood at over 26 million. This base feeds the CRM channel, which saw 2x year-over-year growth in Q1 2025. The app itself offers features like a Net Worth tracker, Treasury account access, and Automated Investing, positioning it as a central hub for wealth management, not just product comparison.

Direct Performance Marketing Channels (Paid Search, Social)

While organic search drives the bulk of traffic, direct performance marketing is used to capture high-intent, non-organic traffic and diversify acquisition. The financial reports do not break out specific spend for paid search or social media advertising for 2025, but the impact of search traffic headwinds on Credit Card revenue suggests a reliance on, and vulnerability to, search engine performance.

The overall revenue performance in Q1 2025 shows the relative channel health:

Revenue Segment	Q1 2025 Revenue (Millions USD)	Year-over-Year Change
Insurance	$74.0	246% Increase
Credit Cards	$38.0	24% Decrease
Loans	$24.0	12% Increase
SMB Products	$28.9	5% Decrease

The decline in Credit Cards revenue, attributed to organic search headwinds, implies that paid channels are likely being used to supplement or stabilize traffic for monetizable product pages, even if direct spend figures aren't public. The company raised its 2025 full-year adjusted operating income guidance to $55 million to $66 million, suggesting disciplined spending across all direct channels.

Email Newsletters (e.g., TravelNerd) and Content Syndication

This falls under the CRM channel, which is seeing strong growth. The 2x year-over-year growth in the CRM channel in Q1 2025 is the key metric here, driven by the 26 million cumulative registered user base. This channel is used to reengage members with personalized offers and smart nudges. While specific metrics for a newsletter like TravelNerd aren't itemized, the overall CRM channel success indicates that email and direct communication are highly effective for driving repeat, monetizable visits.

International Websites in the U.K., Canada, and Australia

NerdWallet, Inc. operates in the U.S., U.K., Canada, and Australia. While the U.S. is the overwhelming core market, international growth is a stated priority.

Traffic distribution for October 2025 shows the scale of these markets:

• United States: 93.11% of traffic.
• United Kingdom: 1.45% of traffic.
• Canada: 1.09% of traffic.

Financially, the Insurance unit revenue more than tripled in Q1 2025, helped by strong demand in auto insurance, which is a key vertical across these markets. In Q1 2025, Loans revenue grew by 12% year-over-year, partly due to integrating the Next Door Lending acquisition, which supports mortgage product offerings in these geographies.

Finance: draft 13-week cash view by Friday.

NerdWallet, Inc. (NRDS) - Canvas Business Model: Customer Segments

You're looking at the core audience NerdWallet, Inc. serves as of late 2025. This isn't just one group; it's a spectrum of people and businesses needing clarity on their money moves, from the everyday consumer to the small business owner.

The platform's reach is international, focusing on key English-speaking markets where financial complexity is high. The company's strategy is clearly about capturing a wide audience and then deepening the relationship with those who register for more personalized tools.

Geographically, NerdWallet, Inc. focuses its efforts across several major economies:

• Users across the U.S., U.K., Canada, and Australia.

The overall scale of the audience is substantial, though the focus has shifted from raw traffic to higher-value, engaged users. As of the first quarter of 2025, NerdWallet, Inc. reported having over 26 million cumulative registered users. This focus on registration is key because, honestly, the lifetime value (LTV) for these registered users is reported as 5X better than for those who only visit without signing up.

We can map the customer segments directly to the product revenue streams NerdWallet, Inc. reports, which gives us a clear financial picture of where the attention and monetization are happening in the third quarter of 2025.

Here is the breakdown of revenue by product category for Q3 2025, which reflects the financial scale of the segments being served:

Customer Segment Proxy	Product Revenue (Q3 2025)	Year-over-Year Change (Q3 2025)
Users seeking banking/savings guidance (Emerging Verticals)	$46.9 million	Up 83% (Banking specifically up 96% YoY)
Homeowners/Prospective Buyers seeking mortgage/insurance (Insurance & Loans)	$70.9 million (Insurance)	Up 3%
Users seeking loans (Personal/Mortgage)	$39.6 million (Loans)	Up 66%
Mass-market consumers seeking credit cards	$34.1 million (Credit Cards)	Down 25%
Small and Mid-sized Businesses (SMBs)	$23.6 million (SMB Products)	Down 15%

The mass-market consumer segment, historically driven by credit cards, is facing headwinds, with that revenue line down 25% year-over-year in Q3 2025. To be fair, the platform is heavily leaning into other areas to compensate for this, showing massive growth in the banking and loans categories.

The segments NerdWallet, Inc. is actively growing and integrating, such as those needing mortgage products, are seeing strong results. The Loans revenue, which includes mortgage loans bolstered by the October 2024 acquisition of Next Door Lending, surged by 66% year-over-year in Q3 2025.

For the financially-literate individuals focused on optimizing savings, the growth in the Emerging Verticals category, primarily driven by banking products, is significant, increasing revenue by 83% in Q3 2025. This suggests a strong pull from users looking for less risky places to hold cash, which management noted.

The Small and Mid-sized Businesses (SMBs) segment, which requires finance and credit products, saw its revenue decline by 15% year-over-year in Q3 2025. This decline is attributed to pressures in organic search traffic and tighter lending conditions for business loans.

You can see the overall third-quarter 2025 revenue hit $215.1 million, which was a 12% increase compared to the prior year, showing diversification is working even as core segments struggle.

Finance: draft a sensitivity analysis on the SMB segment's reliance on organic search versus paid channels by next Tuesday.

NerdWallet, Inc. (NRDS) - Canvas Business Model: Cost Structure

The cost structure for NerdWallet, Inc. is heavily weighted toward customer acquisition and technology maintenance, reflecting its digital-first, performance-driven model.

Performance marketing and brand spend, including the $8 million underspend in Q3 2025

Marketing is a primary cost driver, though the mix between performance marketing (direct response) and brand marketing is actively managed. For the third quarter of 2025, NerdWallet, Inc. made a strategic decision to pause certain expenditures.

• NerdWallet, Inc. underspent on brand marketing by $8 million in Q3 2025 as part of a reevaluation of its brand creative strategy.
• The company anticipates a return to more typical levels of brand spend in the fourth quarter of 2025.
• Efficiency gains in performance marketing contributed to the Non-GAAP operating income of $41.3 million in Q3 2025.

Technology development and capitalized software costs

Investment in the platform, including engineering talent and new feature development, is capitalized to reflect the long-term nature of software assets. The figures below reflect the start of fiscal year 2025.

Metric	Period Ended March 31, 2025 (Q1 2025)	As of March 31, 2025
Capitalized software development costs (3 Months)	$4.4 million	N/A
Capitalized internal-use software development costs (Gross)	N/A	$3,410,000
Total gross capitalized software for internal-use	N/A	$3,629,000
Total capitalized software costs net	N/A	$1,627,000

The definition of adjusted free cash flow for NerdWallet, Inc. specifically deducts these capitalized software development costs, highlighting their impact on immediate cash flow metrics.

Salaries and benefits for editorial, engineering, and sales teams

Personnel costs are embedded within the operating expenses, which saw significant movement in the first nine months of 2025. You can see the scale of these costs by looking at the total operating expenses for the most recently reported quarter.

Expense Category (Q3 2025)	Amount	Year-over-Year Change Context
Total Operating Expenses (GAAP)	$180.7 million	Total operating expenses decreased by $4.0 million for the quarter compared to Q3 2024.
Sales and Marketing Expenses (Q3 2025)	Increased by $7.2 million (6%)	Indicates continued investment in performance marketing channels.
Operating Expenses (Nine Months Ended Q3 2025)	Rose by $62.3 million	Primarily driven by escalated sales and marketing costs over the longer period.

Salaries and benefits for the engineering team would be a major component of the Research & Development spend, which was $86.7 million for the full year 2024, a figure to benchmark against the 2025 run-rate.

General and administrative expenses to support corporate operations

General and administrative (G&A) costs support the overall corporate structure, including finance, legal, and executive functions. These are part of the broader operating expenses.

• For the full year 2024, General and Administrative expenses were a component of the total Operating Expenses of $571.6 million.
• The company reported GAAP Income from Operations of $34.4 million for Q3 2025, showing strong leverage on the cost base that quarter.

Costs associated with vertical integration, like the Next Door Lending acquisition

NerdWallet, Inc. strategically acquired Next Door Lending in October 2024 to move into direct mortgage brokerage, which introduced specific upfront and contingent costs.

Acquisition Cost Component	Amount	Reporting Detail
Upfront Cash Consideration	$1 million	Paid for outstanding equity interests, closed October 1, 2024.
Performance-Based Earnout Awards	Up to an aggregate of $3.5 million	Reported as compensation expenses through 2028, subject to continued employment.

The integration of Next Door Lending is reflected in the Loans revenue category, which surged by 66% year-over-year in Q3 2025.

NerdWallet, Inc. (NRDS) - Canvas Business Model: Revenue Streams

You're looking at the money NerdWallet, Inc. brings in, which is heavily weighted toward performance-based partnerships. The core of the business is referral fees, where NerdWallet, Inc. gets paid based on a cost-per-acquisition or cost-per-click model from financial partners.

This model is evident when you look at the specific revenue segments reported for the third quarter of 2025. Honestly, the mix shows where the market is strong and where there are headwinds. For instance, referrals from new channels like LLMs/AI are small right now, but they convert at materially higher rates, which is something to watch.

Here's the quick math on the major revenue drivers from Q3 2025, which totaled $215.1 million in revenue for the quarter:

Revenue Stream	Q3 2025 Revenue (in millions)	Year-over-Year Change
Insurance revenue	$70.9 million	Increased 3%
Loans revenue	$39.6 million	Up 66%
Credit card revenue	$34.1 million	Decreased 25%
Emerging Verticals revenue	$46.9 million	Up 83%
SMB products revenue	$23.6 million	Down 15%

The Loans revenue growth of 66% year-over-year was definitely helped along by the integration of the October 2024 acquisition of Next Door Lending, particularly in personal and mortgage loans. Still, the Credit Card segment saw a significant drop, down 25% year-over-year, primarily because of continued headwinds in organic search traffic.

The growth in Emerging Verticals, which includes banking products, was impressive at 83% year-over-year, bringing in $46.9 million in Q3 2025. This diversification is key, especially when other segments face channel-specific issues.

Looking forward, NerdWallet, Inc. management is projecting strong profitability for the full year 2025 based on these trends and operational efficiency gains. The forecasted 2025 annual Adjusted EBITDA is in the range of $141 million to $145 million.

You should keep an eye on these revenue streams:

• Insurance revenue: $70.9 million in Q3 2025.
• Loans revenue: $39.6 million in Q3 2025.
• Credit card revenue: $34.1 million in Q3 2025.
• Forecasted 2025 annual Adjusted EBITDA: $141 million to $145 million.

Finance: draft 13-week cash view by Friday.