20 Things You Didn’t Know About Acorns
Acorns is a financial start-up that helps people to identify purchases, then invest in the change automatically. The headquarters is located in Irvine, California, and provides a helpful app for investor use. If you are not yet familiar with this fintech company, here are the facts that will help bring you up to speed. Here are 20 things you didn’t know about Acorns.
1. Acorns is founded by seasoned entrepreneurs
According to CrunchBase, Acorns was founded by five seasoned entrepreneurs, who were later joined by assistance from Noah Kerner. The co-founders are Jason Martell, who established four new startups and serves as the head of the senior user experience at Evolus. Jeff Cruttenden is a co-founder of Say with 3 founded organizations and 4 portfolio companies. Walter Cruttenden is co-founder and chairman of Acorns with 2 portfolio companies to his investment credit and one advisory role. Jennifer Barrett is the Chief Education Office and Grow Editor in Chief at Acorns. Mark Dru is a co-founder of Blast with 2 founded organizations to his credit.
2. Acorns has been around for a while
Acorns was established on February 29, 2012. The company is entering its nineteenth year of operation. It is also known as Acorns Technology. The legal name of the startup is Acorns Grow, Inc. Don’t be confused if you hear it called any of these names because they are all the same entity.
3. Acorns uses automated technology
The app that has been developed and distributed by Acorns helps investors find purchases in an easy-to-use platform that seeks out information, then puts together a diversified portfolio for them. The investments are low-cost within the exchange-traded funds market that are offered by BlackRock, Vanguard, and other asset managers. Investments are made automatically by the app which saves time and effort in assembling a diversified portfolio.
4. Acorns is a diversified Finance company listed among four classifications
When you’re searching for Acorns on the web, you will find that it is listed under four main categories. This is because it is a diverse company within the Finance arena. It is first and foremost a finance company. It is also a financial services startup that offers a range of different options for its customers. It is also listed as a FinTech company because of the technology that its founders developed, which is unique within the industry. Acorns also assists clients in wealth management.
5. Acorns is led by a 13 member executive leadership team
There are currently 13 talented professionals leading Acorns. Noah Kerner serves as the chief executive officer, standing at the helm of the company. he is also an investor and board member of Acorns. Jeff Cruttenden is a co-founder. Manning Field is the chief operations officer. Jennifer Barrett is the chief education officer and grow editor in chief, and is a co-founder. Jasmine Lee is the chief financial officer. Roma Vakil is the vice president of marketing. Jeremiah Warren is the senior digital media strategist. Kamran Ansari is a venture investor.
6. Acorns has an 8 member board of directors
The board of Acorn consists of 8 members who provide advisement for the strategic planning of the operation. Adam Nash joined the board of Acorn in February of 2017. He is credit with 23 portfolio companies. Harry Markowitz is an advisor and professor of finance at Rady School of Management. Mathias Schilling joined the board in 2015. He is a founding partner at Headline, serving on 12 board and advisory committees. Mark Terbeek has been a board observer since April of 2015. He s a founding partner at Greycroft and serves on 19 advisory committees. Dana Settle has been a board observer since 2015. She is a co-founder and partner at Greycroft, also serving in 19 board and advisory roles. Jonathan Keidan is a founding and managing partner at Torch Capital with 19 portfolio companies. He serves as advisor on the board of Acorns. Jeff Sippel is an advisor on 2 boards, joining Acorns in 2019, and Noah Kerner, CEO of Acorns has been a member of the board since 2014.
7. The technology behind Acorns is complex
Acorns’ website and the app are powered by a complicated array of technologies. It provides users with a smooth and seamless experience, but there is a lot going on behind the scenes. It uses 54 technologies to power its website, distributed across 64 technology products. A few include HTML5, jQuery, Google Analytics, Viewport Meeta, iPhone Mobile Compatible, SPF, and dozens of others.
8. Acorns’ IT overhead is high
The overhead cost of maintaining these technologies is expensive. The associated costs for procuring all of the necessary technology products are high. There is also a cost for hiring staff to keep them all integrated and running smoothly is high. It creates a significant budget line item for Acorns with an estimated annual cost of $16.3 thousand.
9. Acorns has massive web traffic
Acorns has grown from a small startup to a massive Fintech operation that has attracted millions of visitors to the website. The analytical statistics show that Acorns has an average of 4,852,667 visitors per month. This has earned it the training of number 11,606 of all websites globally, registered on the web. This is an impressive figure.
10. Acorns is the most popular in the United States
The majority of website visitors for Acorns comes from the United States. It has not yet entered the markets of other countries. This means that there is tremendous potential for growth in other global markets should the company decide to pursue that avenue. One percent of the visitors originate in Canada with the other two percent of visitors coming from the United Kingdom, Mexico, and India.
11. Acorns is a venture capital-funded startup
So far, Acorns has raised a total of $207 million in funding from its investors. It has participated in more than ten rounds of funding with the latest closing on December 1, 2019. The most recent investors for Acorn are BDMI and Chris Adamo.
12. Investor confidence in Acorns is high
Acorns has attracted the interest and participation of a total of 30 investors. The startup has 9 lead investors. This includes Chris Adamo, BDMI, actress, and singer Jennifer Lopez, Alex Rodriguez, Bin Capital Ventures, Comcast Ventures, NBC Universal, TPG, DST Global, and Headline. Many of the investors have representatives of their investments who sit on the board of Acord to provide advice for strategic planning and forward movement. Acorns has attracted a broad range of investors from different segments of the market, who believe in the company’s ability to continue to thrive, grow and expand to provide a decent return on the investments made into its future. So far, the outlook for Acorns to accomplish this feat is bright and sunny.
13. Acorns acquired Vault
Evidence of Acorns’ strategy to grow and expand is in its history of making acquisitions. It began this phase of development of the startup on November 7, 2017. Acorns made its first acquisition with the purchase of Vault. This is a startup based in Portland, Oregon that helps clients save for retirement automatically. The app can be set up to place a new investment whenever the subscriber gets paid. Although the details and agreements of the acquisition have not yet been disclosed, Vault was estimated to have a total funding amount of $2.3 million at the time of its acquisition.
14. Acorns acquired Harvest Platform
Acorns acquired a business called Harvest Platform on March 12, 2021. This is a tech startup that identifies any bank fees that are negotiable. When it locates such an offer, it automatically procures refunds for the users who subscribe to the system. It performs these functions automatically. Harvest Platform is based in New York, New York. The details of the acquisition have not been shared, nor the price paid for the company, but at the time of its acquisition by Acorns, Harvest Platform had a total funding amount of $3.1 million, which adds to the value of Acorns and provides it with yet one more useful service for its subscribers.
15. Acorns acquired Pillar of Life
The most recent acquisition made by Acorns was of a New York, New York-based company called Pillar of Life. This is a digital platform that is known as Pillar. It is designed for use by families to help them secure enhanced care and protection for their elderly loved ones. At the time of the acquisition, Pillar of Life had a total funding amount of $7 million, which adds to the overall valuation for Acorns. It also provides us with a larger picture of the strategies and additional product offerings that Acorn is expanding into. In 2021 alone, so far, the company has acquired two new businesses with diverse new products and services to add to its already extensive collection of offerings.
16. Acorns is expanding its workforce
According to its LinkedIn page, Acorns employs a total of 338 workers in its workforce. The company is currently hiring. It has listed 5 new job openings. All of them are located in the Los Angeles area. The positions open are mainly for a manager, product developer, end a few engineering positions. This tells us that Acorns is not making a huge expansion at this point. It appears to be focusing on its main headquarters and keeping expansions local with the development of new products, and solidifying its home base at this stage of development.
17. Acorns is changing its status
Up until now, Acorns has been a privately held venture-backed startup. All of that is about to change. According to Techcrunch, Acorns is making plans to go public. This is good news for investors who like to dabble in day trades and diversify their portfolios with a few shares of diverse companies. It has been confirmed that corn has entered into a SPAC deal with a value of $2.2 billion to go public.
18. Acorns is going to merge
CNBC reports that the $2.2 billion deal between Acorns and Pioneer Merger Corp calls for it to merge with the publicly traded special purpose acquisition company. The expected closing date for the merger will take place at some time towards the end of 2021.
19. Acorns is looking forward to a new growth realization
Although Acorns may be in an idle state right now, this couldn’t be further from the truth. CEO Noah Kerner explains that the leadership has determined that this is the best time for the company to go public as it will add steroids to the growth of the company. The merge with Pioneer Merger Corporation will give the company the boost that it needs to accelerate growth.
20. Acorns is an emerging unicorn
The latest valuation of Acorns had placed it at an estimated $500 million, which is about half of what is needed to qualify as a unicorn company. With the proposed IPO coming up at the end of the year, the new figure is a lot higher, playing the values of the company after the merger at about $2.2 billion. This would push Acorns well over the top of the required $1 billion valuation to achieve unicorn status. It’s well on its way and from all appearances, Acorns is set to double the requirements to join this elite group of companies. Kerner also shared that Acorns is holding true to its original mission to provide the tools to make wealth in everyone’s hands to help even the playing field for smaller investors who are looking for equal investment opportunities. The goal of Acorns is to get these tools into the hands of everyone as fast as they can. It is going to be an interesting year of change for Acorns, and this is a company that bears watching. Keep an eye out for more news as we approach the end of 2021.
