Office address: 450 West 33rd Street, Floor 11, New York, NY 10001
Website: betterment.com
Year established: 2010
Company type: financial services
Employees: 450+
Expertise: automated investing, retirement solutions, high-yield cash management, IRAs, crypto investing, checking accounts, trusts, financial planning, tax optimization, socially responsible investing
Parent company: Betterment Holdings Inc.
Key people: Sarah Levy (CEO), Peter Lorimer (CFO), Mike Reust (president), Seth Rosenbloom (general counsel), John Mileham (chief technology officer), Johanna Richardson (chief product officer), Kim Rosenblum (chief marketing officer)
Financing status: venture capital-backed
Betterment is a digital investment advisor based in New York City with over $65 billion in assets. The company offers automated investing, high-yield cash accounts, IRAs, crypto portfolios, and checking services. More than 1 million customers use it for goal-based investing, tax-saving tools, and easy cash management.
Betterment was established in New York City in 2008 by Jon Stein and Eli Broverman. Their goal was to make investing simple and affordable for everyone by using technology.
The company officially launched in 2010 at TechCrunch Disrupt New York, where it won the Biggest New York Disruptor award. It quickly attracted nearly 400 early customers.
In the years that followed, Betterment introduced features like the Tax-Coordinated Portfolio in 2012 and the RetireGuide tool in 2014. The company expanded into advisor services with Betterment Institutional, later called Betterment for Advisors.
It then entered the workplace benefits market in 2016 with Betterment for Business. By 2017, the firm managed $10 billion in assets and offered socially responsible investing options.
Betterment continued to grow as it acquired Makara in 2022 to expand into crypto portfolios. The firm also launched Crypto Investing later that year. The company acquired Marcus Invest accounts from Goldman Sachs in 2024, broadening its customer base.
In 2021, Betterment refreshed its brand with a new logo and identity. By 2024, the company managed over $45 billion in assets for more than 1 million accounts.
In 2025, Betterment acquired Ellevest’s automated investing business as the latter shifted its focus to wealth management for high-net-worth clients. This transfer brought new digital-first clients to Betterment, who valued features like joint accounts and cash options.
Later in the year, the firm announced the acquisition of Rowboat Advisors, a portfolio management software provider. The company seeks to enhance its offerings for independent advisors with tools for tax management and direct indexing.
Betterment offers expert-built portfolios and a simple digital platform. Investors can choose from diverse, socially responsible, cash, or crypto options:
Betterment is also known for its tax-saving strategies and automated portfolio management. Investors benefit from low-cost ETFs, transparent pricing, and automatic rebalancing with reinvested dividends.
Betterment states its team is driven by helping people reach their goals, no matter the size. The company says it values different paths to “better” and focuses on making investing simple for everyone. Their core values include:
The company also says that it invests in each employee’s career. Benefits include:
Betterment supports equity by offering open employee resource groups for all staff. The company says these groups host curated programs to help everyone feel valued and heard.
Sarah Levy became CEO of Betterment in 2020. Before joining the company, Levy spent over 20 years at Viacom in senior leadership, including as COO. She began her career at Disney and is known for her experience in brand building, strategy, and operations.
The Betterment leadership team combines diverse skills and backgrounds to guide the company’s direction:
Together, these executives oversee Betterment’s strategic, operational, and technological priorities, ensuring effective management across all areas of the business.
To expand advisor planning solutions in 2025, the company partnered with Envestnet, a major wealth technology provider. Betterment Advisor Solutions, the advisor-focused division of the firm, also joined with Vanilla, an estate planning technology firm.
They aim to offer advisors advanced estate planning tools and education. These partnerships help advisors provide more complete services and support the company’s focus on meeting growing client needs.
The company also conducted a study that revealed how different generations prefer to communicate with their advisors. Younger clients often want digital tools and transparency, while older clients may value more personal or traditional contact. By sharing these insights, the company enables firms to tailor their approach and use technology to better serve clients of all ages.
Responsibility for advice — even that which is incidental to a transaction — cannot be palmed off on an inanimate object.
The firm has amassed four times the amount of assets held by either Betterment or Wealthfront and more than twice as much as Schwab.
The robo-adviser saw a 55% increase of total rounds since 2010.
It is no secret that financial giants like Charles Schwab and Vanguard Group have disrupted the robo-adviser industry. Just look at their assets under management.
As rivals expand, the robo hasn't hinted at any plans to partner with advisers.
“Our goal is to be our customer's central financial relationship, where you do everything in the long term,” said Jon Stein, chief executive of Betterment.
Small startups are trying to break into the crowded ranks of adviser-facing robos. But are there too many players now in the market?
In spite of tough hurdles, online platforms are positioning to offer plans to the underserved.
When the markets go wild, clients may not know that they need to ride out the volatility, but technology vendors are looking to prevent any bad financial decisions with behavioral coaching via new online tools.
Advisers that embrace this disruption and offer a wider range of services will thrive and prosper in the digital age.
Retail robos have a lot to offer investors, but are they really as good as they seem?
Banks are watching wealthy clients flirt with robo-advisers, and that's one reason the lenders are racing to release their own versions of the automated investing technology.
Three big deals this year mark an important inflection point as big investors place major bets on the industry.
Financial adviser technology M&A activity totaled nearly $4 billion in 2015, led by SS&C's blockbuster acquisition of Advent and marked by smaller deals for services ranging from financial planning software to robo-adviser technology.
