Investing app Acorns secures USD 300 mln from private investors

While Acorns’ USD 1.9 billion private valuation is below the USD 2.2 billion target when it announced plans to merge with a publicly-traded special purpose acquisition company, or SPAC, that’s because the firm would’ve raised more capital via the SPAC, said company officials.

The startup was valued at USD 1.5 billion on a pre-money basis, an industry term referring to a company’s valuation before it receives external funding, in the scuttled SPAC. That figure increased to USD 1.6 billion in the private round. The company will use its funding to further build out its family-specific offerings, products, and content that increase portfolio personalisation and new crypto offerings.

Acorns, founded in 2012, is an automated investing service that lets customers invest spare change from card transactions into a managed portfolio of ETFs for a monthly fee of USD 3 to USD 5. The firm says it has 4.6 million customers.