Acorns raises $300 million

Fintech startup Acorns has raised $300 million in a Series F funding round that values the company at nearly $2 billion. The round was led by private equity firm TPG and included BlackRock, Bain Capital Ventures, Galaxy Digital, and the investment firm co-founded by basketball player Kevin Durant.

In January, Acorns announced that it no longer plans to go public through a SPAC merger. Instead, the company will pursue a traditional IPO according to CEO Noah Kerner.

Founded in 2012, Acorns is known for helping people save and invest with their spare change. Today it offers additional products around banking and retirement, and it also helps parents open an investment account for their kids. At one point the company made some effort around insurance but the initiative was discontinued.

Acorns has 4.6 million paid subscribers.

“We believe that the convergence of product and education in money is the way to get people engaged in better behaviors. It’s difficult to get people to read about money in the first place, it’s even more difficult to get people to retain the information. And we think active learning is the solution to that.” – Noah Kerner.