Betterment Raises $60M in Growth Funding

NEW YORK, Feb. 19, 2015 /PRNewswire/ -- Betterment, the largest and fastest growing automated investing service, today announced the close of a $60 million round of growth funding. Global private equity firm Francisco Partners led the financing, which includes participation from previous investors Bessemer Venture Partners, Menlo Ventures, and Northwestern Mutual Capital.

"Our growth has continued to accelerate," said Jon Stein, Betterment Founder and CEO. "More people are becoming Betterment customers every day, and our existing customers continue to invest more with us. This new capital will allow us to grow even faster and increase the development of new products that will continue to reinvent investing around what customers want: a seamless, personalized experience that is aligned with their best interest and optimized for the highest expected returns net of all costs."

Launched in 2010, Betterment manages more than $1.4B of assets in tax-efficient, personalized portfolios for more than 65,000 customers, by far the largest customer base of any automated investing service. The company offers a seamless, technology-enabled platform that helps people better manage, protect, and grow their wealth.

"We've created a new product category over the last five years," Stein added. "While we're excited with where we are today, we're really just getting started. There are millions of people in need of better financial advice and services, and we're building the smartest technology and making it accessible to anyone."

In addition to raising the new round of funding, Betterment is welcoming Peter Christodoulo of Francisco Partners to its Board of Directors. Francisco Partners brings significant experience in financial technology, with previous investments that include Prosper Marketplace, eFront, PayLease, Paymetric, Avangate and Hypercom among others.

"We have long felt that the wealth management space was overdue for a solution that could better serve the majority of Americans through smarter technology," Christodoulo said.  "Betterment's unique, vertically integrated architecture allows its platform to be lightning fast, which is proving to be compelling with customers as thousands fund new accounts each month."

In the past year, Betterment has unveiled a variety of new features to help improve investor returns, including Tax Loss Harvesting+^TM and Tax Impact Preview. The company also recently unveiled Betterment Institutional, a digital solution that allows financial advisors to better serve their clients and make their practices more efficient.

For more information, please visit www.Betterment.com and follow @Betterment on twitter.

About Betterment
Betterment is the largest automated investing service, helping people to better manage, protect, and grow their wealth through smarter technology. The service offers a personalized, goal-based, globally diversified portfolio of ETFs, designed to help provide you with the best possible expected returns for retirement planning, building wealth, and other savings goals. Betterment is a CNBC Disruptor 50 and Webby award winner and has been featured in the New York Times, Forbes, and the Wall Street Journal. Betterment helps people to achieve a smarter financial future with minimal effort and for a fraction of the cost of traditional financial services. Learn more here.

About Francisco Partners
Francisco Partners is a global private equity firm that specializes in investments in technology companies. Since its launch fifteen years ago, FP has raised approximately $10 billion and invested in more than 150 technology companies, making it one of the most active investors in the industry. The firm invests in transaction values ranging from $50 million to over $2 billion, where the firm's deep sub-sector knowledge and operational expertise can help a company realize its full potential. For further information, visit www.franciscopartners.com.

Media Contacts:

For Betterment
Joe Ziemer
Director of Communications, Betterment
[email protected] 
646-206-9090

For Francisco Partners
Katie Wood Znameroski
[email protected]
650-801-7952

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SOURCE Betterment