Nothing says “the future’s so bright you gotta wear shades” like earning $100 million in investment capital in less than a year.
Following up on a $35 million dollar round in April, the investment of $64 million just announced by Wealthfront this week puts its total capital at $130 million. With this investment, the company is now worth $700 million, making it one of the more richly valued innovators in the so-called “robo-advisor” space.
New investor Spark Capital Growth led the funding round.
Writing at the Wealthfront blog, Nash is keeping his eye on prize: the $7 trillion in liquid assets Millennials are expected to control within the next half decade. He is also keeping his eye on Charles Schwab, hoping to do for the Millennial generation what Schwab did for baby boomers – only a whole lot faster. “It took Schwab six years to reach its first $1 billion in client assets,” Nash writes, “It took Wealthfront less than 2.5 years.”
Schwab is likely on Wealthfront’s radar for another reason. TechCruch noted that Schwab has announced plans for its own robo-advisor service called “Intelligent Portfolios.” With competition in the space already intense, initiatives like this from legacy advisors will make the online investment management space that much more challenging for innovators.
Based in Palo Alto, California, and one of the oldest Finovate alums, Wealthfront demoed as “kaChing” at FinovateStartup 2009.