Betterment
Headquarters
New York, NYFounded
2008CEO / Founder
Sarah LevyEmployees
501-1000Funding
Series D+ — $435MProducts
1 product listedAvg. AI Score
7.9/10Website
betterment.com/
Profile updated
About Betterment
Betterment is an automated investment and financial planning platform founded in 2008 by Jon Stein and Eli Broverman and headquartered in New York, NY. The company operates as both a registered investment adviser and a broker-dealer, offering retail customers access to diversified ETF-based portfolios managed algorithmically based on individual goals and risk tolerance.
Betterment's core products include taxable investment accounts, traditional and Roth IRAs, 401(k) rollovers, and a high-yield cash reserve account. The platform also offers Betterment for Business, a 401(k) product for employers. Key features include automatic rebalancing, tax-loss harvesting, and goal-based savings buckets. The company competes directly with Wealthfront and Vanguard Digital Advisor in the robo-advisory segment.
Betterment has raised approximately $435 million in total funding across multiple rounds, with investors including Bessemer Venture Partners, Francisco Partners, and Kinnevik. Jon Stein stepped down as CEO in 2020 and was succeeded by Sarah Levy, formerly of Viacom. The company manages tens of billions of dollars in assets under management and has expanded its offerings through the acquisition of Gradvisor, a workplace financial wellness platform, in 2022.
Specialties
Financials
Dated, source-cited figures. Estimates are marked.
Products by Betterment
All products by Betterment reviewed by our AI panel of experts.
How Our Review Panel Scores Betterment
Six independent reviewer personalities assessed Betterment's product on their own terms. They landed within 0.3 points of each other, an unusually strong consensus.
Averaged across 1 reviewed product in our catalog. Scores are out of 10.
Competitive Landscape
Who Betterment competes with, and how they differ.
Closest direct peer robo-advisor, both privately held and priced around a 0.25% AUM fee; competes head-to-head on tax-loss harvesting depth (direct indexing) and cash-account APY.
1 product reviewed on TopReviewedBacked by Vanguard's own ultra-low-cost index-fund lineup and a far larger existing brokerage customer base to cross-sell into; Betterment competes on UX and financial-planning tooling rather than fund-expense-ratio advantage.
Charges no advisory fee -- Schwab instead profits from the cash-allocation spread -- versus Betterment's ~0.25% AUM fee model; Schwab has bank-charter scale that Betterment lacks.
Bundled free for balances under $25K inside Fidelity's existing brokerage ecosystem, versus Betterment's standalone fee-based product built for customers with no other brokerage relationship.
Company Timeline
Key milestones in Betterment's history, with sources.
- Acquisition
Acquires Rowboat Advisors
Betterment acquired Rowboat Advisors, a Menlo Park-based portfolio-management software provider specializing in direct indexing and tax optimization, to expand the Betterment Advisor Solutions custodial platform for RIAs; founder Iraklis Kourtidis joined as VP of Portfolio Management.
401kspecialistmag.com - Acquisition
Acquires Ellevest's automated investing business
Betterment acquired the automated-investing accounts and AUM of Ellevest, the women-focused wealthtech; Ellevest continues to operate its wealth-management business for high-net-worth clients separately. Terms were undisclosed.
thinkadvisor.com - Acquisition
Agrees to acquire Goldman Sachs' Marcus Invest digital investing accounts
As part of Goldman Sachs' retreat from consumer banking, Betterment agreed to acquire Marcus Invest's digital investing accounts and AUM (not its technology, employees or operations); the accounts transitioned to Betterment on or about June 29, 2024. Betterment then served 850,000+ customers with $45B+ AUM.
napa-net.org - Funding
Series F -- $60M equity + $100M credit facility led by Treasury, ~$1.3B valuation
Betterment secured $160M in growth capital: a $60M Series F equity round led by Treasury (founded by Betterment co-founder Eli Broverman) with Kinnevik, Bessemer, Francisco Partners, Menlo Ventures, Anthemis and new investor Aflac Ventures, plus a $100M credit facility from ORIX and Runway Growth Capital. The round valued Betterment at nearly $1.3B; the company then managed $32B for ~700,000 clients.
bloomberg.com - Acquisition
Acquires Wealthsimple's U.S. investment advisory book of business
Betterment acquired the U.S. book of Toronto-based robo-advisor Wealthsimple -- about $190-197M in assets under management across roughly 17,000 clients -- as Wealthsimple refocused on its core Canadian market. Terms were not disclosed.
investmentnews.com - Funding
Series E -- $100M led by Kinnevik at a $700M valuation
Betterment raised $100M in Series E funding led by Swedish investment firm Kinnevik (which put in $65M for a 9.3% stake), with Bessemer Venture Partners, Anthemis Group, Menlo Ventures, Globespan Capital Partners and Francisco Partners participating, valuing the company at $700M, up from $450M in 2015.
fortune.com - Launch
Launches publicly at TechCrunch Disrupt NYC, wins "Biggest New York Disruptor"
Betterment launched at the first TechCrunch Disrupt, winning the Biggest New York Disruptor award and signing up roughly 400 customers in its first 24 hours.
nycfounderguide.com - Founded
Founded by Jon Stein and Eli Broverman
Jon Stein, a former consultant at First Manhattan Consulting Group, and securities attorney Eli Broverman founded Betterment in New York in 2008 to build an automated, low-cost investing alternative to traditional brokerages.
npr.org
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