Altruist investor "always thought an IPO would be possible"

Altruist’s sale to Vanguard wasn’t the only possible outcome for the RIA custodian, according to one of Altruist’s earliest investors. 

“We certainly recognized that an acquisition was possible, but we've always thought an IPO would be possible as well, and the best companies in the venture world tend to have the opportunities to do either,” Nick Beim, partner at venture capital firm Venrock, told InvestmentNews. “That was the one of the big questions we talked through at Altruist.” 

Originally established as the venture capital arm of the Rockefeller family in 1969, Venrock provided seed funding to Altruist in 2018 as the California-based startup further raised roughly $650 million before selling last week to Vanguard. According to Axios, Vanguard paid $4.6 billion in cash for Altruist, which was valued at $1.9 billion in an April 2025 funding round. 

Beim did not comment on the value of Altruist’s sale to Vanguard. “This has been a home run of an investment for Venrock,” he said. “Very successful for sure.” Venrock is notable for being one of the earlier institutional backers of Apple, dating back to 1980. 

Before starting Altruist in 2018, CEO Jason Wenk founded an algorithm-based RIA called FormulaFolios that was sold to Brookstone Capital Management in 2020. Altruist is used by over 6,000 advisors, positioning itself as an AI and technology-forward alternative to legacy brands Charles Schwab and Fidelity that largely form a duopoly on custodied RIA assets.  

“I think Jason [Wenk] is the most impactful innovator in the wealth management industry over the last few decades. What he's done is incredible,” said Beim. “What's interesting about Jason is that he's a software developer who became a financial advisor, and that's very unusual. It enables him to have a native understanding of technology problems that RIAs, financial advisors have to deal with.” 

Vanguard says its Altruist acquisition was done to expand “the reach and impact of financial advice,” which could result in a distribution stream between Altruist’s advisor network and the more than 50 million investors within Vanguard. Altruist’s launch of its Hazel AI agent for tax planning sparked a selloff in U.S. brokerage stocks back in February, and Beim views the AI capability as being central to Vanguard’s purchase.  

“As a venture capitalist who invests in a lot of AI companies, this is an extraordinary team that was able to innovate with incredible speed,” said Beim. “I think particularly with their Hazel AI platform, they've been able to just develop software much faster and have it all integrated into the same platform. And that's a very significant asset for Vanguard to have.”