- Social investment platform eToro inked a definitive agreement to acquire stock and options trading app Gatsby for $50 million.
- U.S.-based Gatsby offers a commission-free, stock and options trading solution geared toward Millennial and Gen Z investors and traders.
- Making its first Finovate appearance in 2011, eToro has won Best of Show in every one of its six appearances on the Finovate stage.
Social investment platform eToro has agreed to acquire Gatsby, a U.S.-based, commission-free, stock and options trading app. The Israel-based company, which has won Best of Show awards in every one of its six appearances on the Finovate stage since 2011, will pay approximately $50 million for the trading company.
As part of the transaction, Gatsby’s co-CEOs and co-founders Jeff Myers and Ryan Belanger-Saleh – along with other senior Gatsby staffers – will join the eToro team. The acquisition of Gatsby will enable eToro to diversify its offering to investors and traders in the U.S., a factor that eToro CEO Yoni Assia called “a strategic focus” for his company.
“Through Gatsby we can provide U.S. users with access to a safe and simple way to trade options,” Assia said, “which we know are particularly attractive in challenging markets.”
Geared toward younger investors and traders, Gatsby was founded in 2018 as a way to bring commission-free options and stock trading to a demographic that has been overlooked until recently. Company co-founder Belanger-Saleh credited eToro as an inspiration for launching Gatsby, calling eToro a social investing pioneer and “the cool older sibling we’d love to hang with.” Joining the eToro team will be Gatsby’s president and chief operating officer (both co-founders), as well as Gatsby’s Chief Technology Officer, Head of Product, and others.
“We are incredibly excited to welcome the Gatsby team to the eToro family,” Assia said. “We have a shared mission of empowering investors through simple, transparent tools.”
The acquisition announcement from eToro comes less than a month after the company launched its private equity portfolio that enables individual retail investors to access private markets that would be otherwise inaccessible to them. eToro’s Private Equity Smart Portfolio gives users exposure to 14 publicly listed asset management and investment companies that manage alternative assets. These firms, including Apollo Global Management, Blackstone, and The Carlyle Group, all feature strong ROIs and get their revenues via a combination of management fees for asset allocation and performance fees based on realized profits.
“Our goal is to open the global markets so that everyone can trade and invest in a simple and transparent way,” eToro Head of Investment Portfolios Dani Brinker said. “With this portfolio we want to leverage the wave of private equity company listings and offer our users a new solution to diversify their portfolio and gain exposure to the revenues generated in private markets.”
Founded in 2007, eToro currently has more than 28 million registered users who share their investment strategies and make it easy for market newcomers to buy, hold, and sell assets ranging from stocks to cryptocurrencies.