Wealthsimple Passes $2 Billion in Total Assets
A couple billion dollars is nothing special for a major bank. But it is pretty amazing for a fintech startup.
Wealthsimple has announced that they crossed the $2 billion mark in terms of total assets managed. Wealthsimple is a platform that helps people invest through an intelligent and easy-to-use portfolio of low-fee funds.
It took Wealthsimple two-and-a-half years to reach $1 billion in assets. They hit that mark in May 2017 after being founded in late 2014. After that, it took only eight months to reach $2 billion. I guess T. Boone Pickens famous tweet to Drake was right: The first billion is always the hardest.
Wealthsimple CEO Michael Katchen has plans to hit the third billion even faster than that, and he’ll most likely be right if the fintech continues growing at this pace. A recent $65 million in funding from institutional investors The Power Group will certainly help to hit that goal as well—that new funding will go towards growing the team, expanding with more features, and bringing the platform to even more people.
In a blog post, Katchen went over some of his proudest moments with Wealthsimple so far. They included launching the service in both the U.S. and the U.K.; tripling the number of clients they serve to over 65,000; winning a second Webby for best financial service site; having award-winning advertising; and of course, winning Startup of the Year at Techvibes’ very own Canadian Innovation Awards.
“Meanwhile, and most importantly, we owe a huge debt of gratitude to our clients for helping us build something so beautiful, so quickly,” Katchen concluded. “Thank you. And thank you to the whole Wealthsimple team, the smartest, most tireless group of engineers and financial wizards and people pros in the whole world.”
The last year has been a flurry for Wealthsimple. Besides the achievements listed above, they also raised $50 million right around when they passed the first $1 billion mark; landed on the Global Fintech100; and partnered with New York fintech Broadridge.
