US-based financial savings app developer Acorns has secured $105m in series E funding from investors including Comcast Ventures and NBCUniversal, both subsidiaries of mass media group Comcast, CNBC reported yesterday.
The round valued the company at $860m and also featured Bain Capital Ventures, a subsidiary of private equity firm Bain Capital, as well as BlackRock, Rise Fund, DST Global and MSD Capital.
Acorns has built a mobile app that connects to a user’s bank account and siphons off small amounts of cash – spare change from consumer purchases – into a savings account that automatically invests the money in a personalised portfolio of stocks and bonds.
The company also has a range of consumer and retail partners who deposit money in a user’s account each time they spend money on their goods.
Broadcaster NBCUniversal is now Acorns’ largest shareholder according to CNBC – its subsidiary – and Mark Hoffman, chairman of subsidiary CNBC, is taking a seat on the company’s board of directors.
Acorns is also forming a strategic partnership with CNBC to create original content such as videos and text articles intended to promote more conscious financial behaviour. It will build on Grow, the digital media outlet run by Acorns since 2016.
Rise Fund had previously invested an undisclosed amount in Acorns in January 2018, which followed a $70m series D round featuring payment services provider PayPal and Rakuten Fintech Fund, a subsidiary of e-commerce firm Rakuten, that closed in July 2017, bringing its total funding to $102m.
Bain Capital Ventures invested $35m to close the round, which reached its first close in 2016, and which included E.ventures, Nyca Partners, Capital Group, Point72, Sound Ventures and Greycroft.
Greycroft and E.ventures participated in the series D round as existing backers, and the company’s earlier investors also include Sound Ventures, Garland Capital and Math Venture Partners.
