M1 Finance, a “smart” money management and investment platform, announced Wednesday it surpassed $1 billion in assets.
The investing app allows its users to manage and grow their money through automated brokering, portfolio lines of credit and digital banking. The idea is to provide a space for people to take control of their personal finances by investing, borrowing and spending all on one platform.
And it seems to have caught on, garnering 100,000 users in 40 months, according to the company.
“M1 Finance’s growth, most of which comes from strong word of mouth, is evidence that there’s a huge market of people who want a next-generation money management platform,” CEO and founder Brian Barnes said in a statement. “Reaching $1 billion in assets on platform so quickly validates our vision and is a testament to our amazing team’s focus on creating the smartest money-management experience.”
The startup came out of stealth mode in 2016 and managed to accomplish what other fintech companies like Acorns, Stash and Wealthfront did in a fraction of the time and with less outside funding, according to data collected by M1 Finance. Barnes attributes the company’s rapid ascent to its “Chicago-style” approach.
“We achieved this growth by being heads down, building a fundamentally better money management experience, and relying on our users to help spread the word,” Barnes said. “We did not buy growth through massive marketing campaigns.”
M1 has also grown quite a bit internally, doubling its headcount last year and moving to a higher-capacity office last month, according to ChicagoInno. Barnes also said the company expects to close on a Series B funding round later this year.
