Acorns (company)

Acorns
Type of site
Private
HeadquartersIrvine, California
Key peopleNoah Kerner (CEO)
IndustryFinancial services
ProductsInvestment management, investment portfolios, stock portfolios, stock trading
URLwww.acorns.com
Launched2012 (2012)

Acorns is an American financial technology and financial services company. Based in Irvine, California, Acorns specializes in micro-investing and robo advice.[1][2]

According to Fortune's Impact 20 list, Acorns had 8.2 million customers in 2020. In 2022, the company's total assets under management[3] exceeded $6.2 billion.

History

The company was launched in 2012 by father and son duo Walter Wemple Cruttenden III and Jeffrey James Cruttenden to promote incremental and passive investing.[4][5] It launched in 2014 with an app for iOS and Android devices.[6] The portfolio options a user can select from were designed in partnership with paid advisor Harry Markowitz, a Nobel laureate.[7]

Since its inception, the platform has expanded to include checking account services and individual retirement account (IRA) products.[8] This was made possible following an acquisition of Portland, Oregon fintech retirement startup, Vault.[9]

In 2018, behavioral economist Shlomo Benartzi was appointed chair of a behavioral economics committee at Acorns, working on an initiative termed the Money Lab to conduct field experiments focused on consumer spending.[10][11]

Since its founding, the company has raised approximately $100 million in venture capital funding.[5] As of August 2019, notable investors in Acorns included Jennifer Lopez, Alex Rodriguez, Bono, Ashton Kutcher and Kevin Durant. PayPal, BlackRock, and NBCUniversal also have a stake in the company.[12][13]

In May 2021, Acorns planned to go public through a merger with a blank-check company Pioneer Merger Corp.[14] These plans were canceled in January 2022, citing market conditions.[15]

Regulatory action

In 2017, Acorns was censured and fined by the Financial Industry Regulatory Authority for failing to maintain proper customer records.[16]

See also

References

  1. ^ "The Innovators – Meet the 65 Companies and Their Owners Who Have Conjured Up the Latest Wave of Products, Services, and Technologies". money.cnn.com. May 1, 2001. Retrieved 2023-04-20.
  2. ^ Lucchetti, Aaron. "E-Tailers Allow Buyers to Add Fund Investments to Carts". WSJ. Retrieved 2023-04-20.
  3. ^ "SEC Form ADV: Acorns, Item 5 - Regulatory Assets Under Management" (PDF). SEC. 2022. Retrieved May 9, 2023.
  4. ^ O'Brien, Sara (15 April 2015). "Acorns is an 8-month-old app that makes investing spare change dead simple, and it just raised $23 million". CNN Business. Retrieved 4 November 2019.
  5. ^ a b Rudegeair, Peter; Krouse, Sarah (9 May 2018). "BlackRock Backs a Startup to Find Out What Young Investors Want". Retrieved 4 November 2019.
  6. ^ Hubbard, Amy (30 May 2014). "Acorns app taps bank account, invests your money $5 at a time". Los Angeles Times. Retrieved 4 November 2019.
  7. ^ Lapowsky, Issie (28 August 2014). "Every Time You Buy Something, This App Invests a Few Pennies on Wall Street". Wired Magazine. Retrieved 4 November 2019.
  8. ^ DeFrancesco, Dan (28 January 2019). "Investing app Acorns nabbed $105 million in funding and now has a higher valuation than robo giant Betterment". Business Insider. Retrieved 4 November 2019.
  9. ^ "Acorns to launch new retirement accounts after buying Portland fintech startup, Vault". TechCrunch. 7 November 2017. Retrieved 2020-02-26.
  10. ^ Shell, Adam (20 September 2018). "Acorns savings app: Why saving $5 a day is easier than committing to $150 a month". USA Today. Retrieved 4 November 2019.
  11. ^ Neal, Ryan (21 September 2018). "Shlomo Benartzi to chair Acorns behavioral economics committee". Investment News. Retrieved 4 November 2019.
  12. ^ Rudegeair, Peter (19 August 2019). "Jennifer Lopez, Alex Rodriguez Are Investing in Fintech Firm Acorns". The Wall Street Journal. Retrieved 4 November 2019.
  13. ^ Berdychowski, Bernadette (21 August 2019). "Star power? Athletes and actors join fintechs as A-list investors". Financial Planning. Retrieved 4 November 2019.
  14. ^ Rooney, Kate (May 27, 2021). "Acorns to go public through a blank-check merger valued at $2.2B". CNBC. Retrieved 2022-02-04.
  15. ^ Bary, Emily (2022-01-19). "Acorns no longer plans to go public through SPAC merger". MarketWatch. Retrieved 2022-02-04.
  16. ^ "FINRA Disciplinary Actions Online | FINRA.org". www.finra.org. Archived from the original on 2023-04-25. Retrieved 2021-02-10.
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