Wealthfront Inc.'s $75 million infusion topped the list of capital raises by private U.S. fintech companies in January, according to data compiled by S&P Global Market Intelligence. A new investor, Tiger Global Management LLC, led the $75 million round and was joined by Wealthfront's existing venture capital investors.

The latest raise is an encouraging sign for the Redwood City, Calif.-based robo-adviser, as the amount exceeded the $64.2 million round that Wealthfront closed in October 2014. It is also positive for the sector as a whole, as digital advisory startups have come under increasing competition from incumbents. In early December 2017, for instance, Morgan Stanley launched its Morgan Stanley Access Investing platform which, among other features, has a $5,000 investment minimum and an advisory fee of 0.35% of assets under management.
Wealthfront's raise also stands in contrast to the remarks of one of the panelists at S&P Global Market Intelligence's Fintech Intel conference in mid-December 2017. Louis Forster, a general partner at Green Visor Capital Management Co. LLC, described the consumer-facing robo-adviser space as "tired" and said he was more interested in investing in other areas; for instance, startups focused on areas where banks have traditionally charged high fees for services. Green Visor is a venture capital fund with a specific focus on fintech. It invested in Wealthminder Inc., a provider of digital advisory tools, in June 2015, but exited that investment in February 2017 when Wealthminder sold to AdvisorEngine Inc. It is worth noting, however, that AdvisorEngine is a business-to-business focused robo-adviser as opposed to consumer-focused.
AdvisorEngine also garnered investor dollars in January. It struck an agreement with WisdomTree Investments Inc., one of its existing investors, to provide up to $30 million in additional working capital. AdvisorEngine is using the majority of that to pay for the acquisition of a client relationship management software company. But the WisdomTree funding transaction is also significant for AdvisorEngine in that it opens the door for a sale. As part of the deal, WisdomTree has the option to purchase the remaining equity interests in AdvisorEngine, which appears to be 64% of the company. In November 2016, WisdomTree disclosed a 36% stake in AdvisorEngine, along with a $20 million investment.
Elsewhere, RobustWealth Inc. completed a $2 million fundraising transaction, and Acorns Grow Inc. received an undisclosed amount from The Rise Fund, a vehicle managed by TPG. Momentum has seemed to be growing of late for Acorns, which also recently announced a partnership with PayPal Holdings Inc.
These capital raises all helped to make the investment and capital markets technology category the most well-funded for the month, out of the five fintech categories used by S&P Global Market Intelligence.


January was not a particularly bountiful month for new fintech companies being founded. We were only able to uncover one: Deep Nexus Inc., a New York-based company that is applying artificial intelligence to the financial markets. On its website, Deep Nexus says it is using deep learning neural networks on time series data, and it specifically highlighted the results of two models based on foreign exchange currency pairs. Its CEO is Kevin Riley, who, among other roles, was previously a principal at proprietary trading firm CVX Capital and CEO of agricultural biotech company AgriScience Inc., according to his LinkedIn profile.
