BlackRock, The World's Largest Asset Management Firm, Acquires FutureAdvisor (YC S10)

by Alexis Ohanian8/26/2015

FutureAdvisor, the automated wealth management and financial advisory platform, announced today that it has been acquired by global asset management firm BlackRock. FutureAdvisor, which was co-founded by CEO Bo Lu and CTO Jon Xu, launched out of YC’s Summer 2010 class. FutureAdvisor currently has more than $600 million in assets under management.

In an interview with the Financial Times about the acquisition, Frank Porcelli, the head of BlackRock’s US wealth advisory unit, said that technology like FutureAdvisor’s could represent the future of asset management:

“I have two 20-something boys and I don’t know, in an age of
texts and chat, that they are going to sit down with a financial
adviser. They might prefer digital advice.
 
Wherever the advice market goes, BlackRock wants to be
there, and one thing we know is that five and 10 years from now, there
will be more people using digital advice platforms than do today.”

In a company blog post announcing the deal, Lu wrote:

“The entire FutureAdvisor team and I are extraordinarily
excited to bring BlackRock’s world-class institutional investment and
risk management capabilities to bear in helping you reach your unique
financial goals. BlackRock has dedicated enormous effort over the years
to improving financial outcomes through its leading active and passive
investment offerings as well as innovative retirement planning tools
including their CoRI Retirement Indexes. We look forward to integrating
and delivering this expertise both directly to clients such as you as
we’ve done to date, as well as in partnership with financial
institutions in the months to come.

There will be no change in the
mission of the FutureAdvisor you trust today. Our brand, our culture,
and our people will work to serve you and improve your digital
experience every day just as we all did before the acquisition. We will
keep our independent offices in the heart of San Francisco. The
knowledgeable and caring staff you’ve interacted with to date will
remain, and become more numerous with time.”

Congratulations to Bo and Jon, and the whole FutureAdvisor team!

Author

  • Alexis Ohanian