Wikipedia

User:Toometa/Acorns (company)

< User:Toometa
Acorns
Type of site
Private
HeadquartersIrvine, California
Key peopleNoah Kerner (CEO)
IndustryFinancial services
ProductsInvestment management, investment portfolios, stock portfolios, stock trading
URLwww.acorns.com
Launched2012; 14 years ago (2012)

Acorns is an American financial technology and financial services company based in Irvine, California. It operates a micro-investing platform offering automated investment portfolios.

Founded in 2012, Acorns expanded beyond automated investing to include taxable investment accounts and individual retirement accounts (IRAs). In the early 2020s, the company further broadened its product offerings through acquisitions in retirement savings, debt management, and consumer finance.

According to Fortune's Impact 20 list, Acorns had 8.2 million customers in 2020. In 2022, the company's total assets under management[1] exceeded $6.2 billion.

History

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The company was formed in 2012 by father and son duo Walter Wemple Cruttenden III and Jeffrey James Cruttenden to make investing more accessible by enabling small, automatic investments.[2][3][4] The portfolio options a user can select from were designed in partnership with paid advisor Harry Markowitz, a Nobel laureate.[5] Acorns launched in 2014 with an app for iOS and Android devices.[6]

In 2014, Noah Kerner, an early investor in the company and a three-time entrepreneur, became chief executive officer.[7]

Following Acorns’s acquisition of Portland, Oregon-based fintech startup Vault in late 2017, the platform expanded to include individual retirement account (IRA) products.[8] Vault’s retirement savings technology supported the launch of Acorns’ IRA offering, branded Acorns Later.[9][10]

In 2018, behavioral economist Shlomo Benartzi was appointed chair of a behavioral economics committee at Acorns, working on an initiative termed the Money Lab to conduct field experiments focused on consumer spending.[11][12]

Since its founding, the company has raised approximately $100 million in venture capital funding.[3] As of August 2019, notable investors in Acorns included Jennifer Lopez, Alex Rodriguez, Bono, Ashton Kutcher and Kevin Durant.[13][14] Institutional investors have included PayPal, BlackRock, and NBCUniversal.[15][3][16]

In 2021, Acorns planned to go public through a merger with a blank-check company Pioneer Merger Corp.[17] These plans were canceled in January 2022, citing market conditions.[18] The same year, the company acquired Harvest Platform, a debt-reduction fintech, and later Pillar, an AI start-up focused on student loan management.[19]

In 2023, Acorns acquired GoHenry and its European subsidiary Pixpay, expanding its offering to financial education and debit cards.[20]

Products and services

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Acorns’ investment portfolios are composed of passively managed exchange-traded funds (ETFs), primarily from large asset managers such as Vanguard and BlackRock, and are allocated according to users’ stated risk tolerance.[21]

In 2021, Acorns expanded its investment offering by introducing customizable portfolio options, allowing users to add individual stocks or ETFs to their portfolios, marking a shift toward more active user engagement alongside its automated model.[22]

The company’s subscription model and its impact on users with small account balances have been discussed within the financial advisory industry, with critics noting the potentially high effective cost for small investors and the company emphasizing the broader scope of its services.[23]

Regulatory action

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In 2017, Acorns was censured and fined by the Financial Industry Regulatory Authority for failing to maintain proper customer records.[24]

References

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  1. ↑ "SEC Form ADV: Acorns, Item 5 - Regulatory Assets Under Management" (PDF). SEC. 2022. Retrieved May 9, 2023.
  2. ↑ O'Brien, Sara (15 April 2015). "Acorns is an 8-month-old app that makes investing spare change dead simple, and it just raised $23 million". CNN Business. Retrieved 4 November 2019.
  3. 1 2 3 Rudegeair, Peter; Krouse, Sarah (9 May 2018). "BlackRock Backs a Startup to Find Out What Young Investors Want". Retrieved 4 November 2019.
  4. ↑ Kosoff, Maya (April 15, 2015). "Acorns is an 8-month-old app that makes investing spare change dead simple, and it just raised $23 million". Business Insider. Retrieved 2026-01-17.
  5. ↑ Lapowsky, Issie (28 August 2014). "Every Time You Buy Something, This App Invests a Few Pennies on Wall Street". Wired Magazine. Retrieved 4 November 2019.
  6. ↑ Hubbard, Amy (30 May 2014). "Acorns app taps bank account, invests your money $5 at a time". Los Angeles Times. Retrieved 4 November 2019.
  7. ↑ Chaparro, Frank. "The CEO of investment startup Acorns wants his app to be used by every American with a household income under $100,000". Business Insider. Retrieved 2026-02-13.
  8. ↑ DeFrancesco, Dan (28 January 2019). "Investing app Acorns nabbed $105 million in funding and now has a higher valuation than robo giant Betterment". Business Insider. Retrieved 4 November 2019.
  9. ↑ "Acorns to launch new retirement accounts after buying Portland fintech startup, Vault". TechCrunch. 7 November 2017. Retrieved 2020-02-26.
  10. ↑ Samantha, Hurst (2017-11-07). "Acorns Acquires Retirement Fund Services Vault". Crowdfund Insider. Retrieved 2026-01-18.
  11. ↑ Shell, Adam (20 September 2018). "Acorns savings app: Why saving $5 a day is easier than committing to $150 a month". USA Today. Retrieved 4 November 2019.
  12. ↑ Neal, Ryan (21 September 2018). "Shlomo Benartzi to chair Acorns behavioral economics committee". Investment News. Retrieved 4 November 2019.
  13. ↑ Rudegeair, Peter (19 August 2019). "Jennifer Lopez, Alex Rodriguez Are Investing in Fintech Firm Acorns". The Wall Street Journal. Retrieved 4 November 2019.
  14. ↑ Berdychowski, Bernadette (21 August 2019). "Star power? Athletes and actors join fintechs as A-list investors". Financial Planning. Retrieved 4 November 2019.
  15. ↑ Demos, Telis (2016-04-21). "PayPal to Lead $30 Million Funding Round for Robo Adviser Acorns Grow". Wall Street Journal. ISSN 0099-9660. Retrieved 2026-01-18.
  16. ↑ mdidymus (2019-01-29). "Acorns reaches $860m valuation through Series E, signs CNBC deal". FinTech Global. Retrieved 2026-01-18.
  17. ↑ Rooney, Kate (May 27, 2021). "Acorns to go public through a blank-check merger valued at $2.2B". CNBC. Retrieved 2022-02-04.
  18. ↑ Bary, Emily (2022-01-19). "Acorns no longer plans to go public through SPAC merger". MarketWatch. Retrieved 2022-02-04.
  19. ↑ Hinchliffe, Hinchliffe (April 9, 2021). "Acorns bags second acquisition of 2021 with AI start-up Pillar". Fintech Futures. Retrieved January 18, 2026.
  20. ↑ Khairnar, Shruti (April 3, 2023). "US saving and investing app Acorns acquires UK's GoHenry". Fintech Future. Retrieved January 18, 2026.
  21. ↑ Rudegeair, Peter; Krouse, Sarah (2018-05-09). "BlackRock Backs a Startup to Find Out What Young Investors Want". Wall Street Journal. ISSN 0099-9660. Retrieved 2026-01-18.
  22. ↑ Nicole, Casperson (October 12, 2021). "Acorns to launch custom portfolios in push toward active investing". www.investmentnews.com. Retrieved 2026-01-18.
  23. ↑ "Fees on Savings Apps Can Add Up". InvestmentNews. Retrieved November 22, 2023.
  24. ↑ "FINRA Disciplinary Actions Online | FINRA.org". www.finra.org. Archived from the original on 2023-04-25. Retrieved 2021-02-10.
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