M1 Finance brought in its third significant round of funding in less than a year, this time $75 million in a Series D. The company provides a free platform to enable people to manage and grow their money with control and automation.
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“This is the vision of what I wanted my personal finance account to look like,” M1 Finance founder and CEO Brian Barnes told Crunchbase News. “I began investing at a young age, but if you look at finance management nothing happens on one platform. That is what we built. I can manage my checking account, but then sweep that into investments that I selected. If I need to borrow money, I can tap into the lowest interest rates.”
Coatue led the Series D and was joined by Left Lane Capital and Clocktower Technology Ventures. The Chicago-based company has now raised $153 million since it was founded in 2015, which includes a $45 million Series C and $33 million Series B, Barnes said.
“We have been following Brian’s journey for the last four years and have been consistently amazed at the scale of his vision and ability to continually execute to plan, which ultimately compelled us to join him on this adventure,” said Michael B. Gilroy, general partner at Coatue, via email.
The Series B was the only planned round and the only one the company has spent money out of, Barnes added. The additional fundraising was driven by the company’s growth and investor demand: M1 Finance reached more than $3.5 billion in client assets just five months after doubling to $2 billion.
In addition, it saw a three-time increase in new sign-ups in January 2021 versus December 2020, as well as similar growth in new sign-ups between Jan. 26 and Feb. 8, Barnes said.
With more than $3 billion in assets under management, M1 Finance had over 500,000 investors to open accounts and improve their financial well-being through investing, digital checking and portfolio lines of credit.
M1 Finance intends to use the funding to improve its investor experience, as well as to double its employee headcount to nearly 300 by the end of 2021, up from just 40 employees at the beginning of 2020, Barnes said.
“We know creating M1 Finance into a long-term durable financial institution will happen over many years,” Barnes added. “We are trying to be the next-gen Charles Schwab, but it is going to take time and money.”
Illustrations: iStock
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