Fintech Stash weighs options for going public

The robo-adviser raised $125 million in a February funding round, for a $1.4 billion valuation.

Financial technology firm Stash is exploring options for a market listing, such as merging with a special purpose acquisition company or a traditional initial public offering, according to people with knowledge of the matter.

“Goldman Sachs acts as our adviser and we continuously assess the market to determine our optimal financing strategy,” Stash co-founder and Chief Executive Brandon Krieg said Thursday in an emailed statement, without elaborating on the fintech’s plans.

A spokesman for Goldman Sachs Group Inc. declined to comment.

“We’re extremely confident about the level of our current funding,” Krieg said, referring to Stash’s $125 million funding round in February, which drew backing from Todd Boehly’s Eldridge Industries, Owl Ventures and funds advised by T. Rowe Price Group Inc., among others, at a $1.4 billion valuation. LendingTree Inc. is among Stash’s earlier investors.

“With the introduction of our new robo-advisory product called Smart Portfolios and a range of compelling new features, we’ve seen record growth and our revenue more than double in the past year,” Krieg said.

Stash, which he founded in 2015 along with Ed Robinson, aims to help younger, less affluent Americans with banking as well as investment advice and services.

It operates a subscription-based platform with more than 5 million customers and has $2.5 billion under management. Account openings doubled in 2020 from a year earlier, Stash said in February.

Earlier Thursday, another investing startup, Acorns, agreed to go public through a $2.2 billion SPAC merger.