Canadian investment firm Wealthsimple has attained the technology unicorn status after raising another C$114 million ($87 million) in financing to hit a valuation of over $1 billion. The latest series of funding was led by California-based Menlo Park TVC, according to the statement issued by the company on Wednesday.
Other investors in the latest round of funding included U.S.-based ventures fund companies like Greylock Partners, Meritech Capital Partners, Two Sigma Ventures Investments, and Munich-based Allianz X.
With the funding TVC’s David Yuan, the general partner will join Wealthsimple’s board of directors.
Picks for you
Before the current series of funding, Wealthsimple had raised almost $190 million at a valuation of $743 million, according to PitchBook data.
Wealthsimple embarks on an expansion
Wealthsimple is known as a low-fee way platform to invest on autopilot through its Robo-advisory services and commission-free stock trading. Currently, the company boasts of over 1.5 million users globally under three tiers of membership.
Wealthsimple’s growth has seen the company receive comparisons to Robinhood which has a valuation of $11.7 billion dollars. Robinhood growth exploded during the coronavirus pandemic.
Yuan commented on Robinhood and Wealthsimple’s comparison. According to Yuan:
“Robinhood has done a great job at building game mechanics around trading whereas Wealthsimple’s ethos is about wealth generation over time, or getting rich slowly. The pandemic has been a strong tailwind for the business.”
The funding will boost Wealthsimple’s market position and improve its market position. It comes after the firm embarked on an expansion. Recently, the company launched Wealthsimple Crypto, a product that enables users to invest in Bitcoin and Ethereum.
