Wealthfront raises $75 million; profitability on the horizon, CEO says

Wealthfront closed a $75 million round of funding to help develop new products for its growing client base.

The independent robo advisor has amassed just over $9 billion in assets under management since launching in late 2011. CEO Andy Rachleff said on Thursday the new round should be “more than enough” to see them through to becoming profitable.

Rachleff added with the new funding Wealthfront plans to “even more aggressively expand into [investment management and banking services] than we have in the past.”

Rachlef-Andy-Wealthfront

The startup, based in Redwood City, California, declined to comment on valuation, but was previously valued at $700 million when it raised money in 2014, according to CB Insights. Tiger Global Management is a new investor in Wealthfront, which also received funding from existing institutional investors, including Benchmark Capital, Greylock Partners, Index Ventures, Ribbit Capital, Social Capital and Spark Capital Growth. Rachleff also co-founded Benchmark Capital.

Last year saw some of the biggest banks and established wealth managers spend millions of dollars on financial technology to transform decades-old offerings, leading to growing competition from the incumbents. Expansion from other wealth startups is also strong, with Betterment amassing $12 billion since launching in 2010 and closing a financing round in 2017 that saw its valuation hit $800 million.

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