Digital wealth platform Betterment has acquired the US book of rival Canadian robo advisor WealthSimple.
The deal will give see WealthSimple pull out of the US market and give Betterment about 17,400 additional customers with assets under management of $190 million. Betterment currently has 600,000 customers and $28 billion in AUM.
Betterment won the business in a competitive bidding process for which the size of the transaction was not disclosed.
Betterment will not be acquiring any technology, employees, or operations as a part of the deal.
Backed by C$114 million in equity financing that was raised last Autumn, WelathSimple has been broadening its focus of late, moving into areas such as savings and spending, crypto assets, and peer-to-peer payments. The funding round gave the company a $1.5 billion valuation.
Michael Katchen, co-founder and CEO of Wealthsimple, comments: "As we shift our focus to our Canadian business for the time being, finding a partner for our US business that shared our commitment to putting clients first was our top priority."