Wealthsimple Inc. is a Canadian online investment management service. The firm was founded in September 2014 by Michael Katchen, Brett Huneycutt and Rudy Adler and is based in
Toronto
Toronto ( ; or ) is the capital city of the Canadian province of Ontario. With a recorded population of 2,794,356 in 2021, it is the most populous city in Canada and the fourth most populous city in North America. The city is the anch ...
. As of November 2021, the firm holds over C$15 billion in assets under management. It is primarily owned by Power Corporation indirectly at 42.5% through investments made through their holdings in
Power Financial
Power Financial Corporation is a Canadian multinational company that was founded in 1984. Power Financial, a wholly owned subsidiary of Power Corporation of Canada, is an international management and holding company with interests in financial ...
Prior to founding Wealthsimple, Michael Katchen worked for
1000Memories
1000Memories was a website that let people organize, share, and discover old photos and memories and to set up family trees. It was shut down in late 2013 after an acquisition by Ancestry.com. After Ancestry.com bought 1000Memories in 2012, Katchen developed a spreadsheet with tips to help his colleagues set up investment portfolios. Interest in the spreadsheet helped inspire the idea for Wealthsimple. In 2014, he returned to Toronto to launch the company.Joe Castaldo "How Wealthsimple founder Michael Katchen is shaking up financial advice," ''
Canadian Business
''Canadian Business'' is the longest-publishing business magazine based in Toronto, Ontario, Canada, and founded in 1927. The print edition terminated in the end of 2016. Beginning in January 2017, the magazine was published online only.
In Octob ...
'', March 9, 2015.
2015 acquisition of Canadian ShareOwner Investments Inc.
In December 2015, Wealthsimple merged with Canadian ShareOwner Investments Inc., a Canadian order-execution only
broker-dealer
In financial services, a broker-dealer is a natural person, company or other organization that engages in the business of trading securities for its own account or on behalf of its customers. Broker-dealers are at the heart of the securities and ...
. Through the acquisition, Wealthsimple became an owner of one of Canada's 14 discount brokerages (2015) alongside other owners of discount brokerages including
Bank of Montreal
The Bank of Montreal (BMO; french: Banque de Montréal, link=no) is a Canadian multinational investment bank and financial services company.
The bank was founded in Montreal, Quebec, in 1817 as Montreal Bank; while its head office remains in ...
and
Royal Bank of Canada
Royal Bank of Canada (RBC; french: Banque royale du Canada) is a Canadian multinational financial services company and the largest bank in Canada by market capitalization. The bank serves over 17 million clients and has more than 89,000 ...
."Wealthsimple Acquires Automated Investment Manager to Innovate Canadian FinTech," ''TechVibes'', December 2, 2015. The acquisition of Canadian ShareOwner Investment Inc. resulted in the assets under management comprising across 10,000 customer accounts.
Webby Awards
The Webby Awards are awards for excellence on the Internet presented annually by the International Academy of Digital Arts and Sciences, a judging body composed of over two thousand industry experts and technology innovators. Categories includ ...
named Wealthsimple its Best Financial Services/Banking website.
In March 2016, Wealthsimple began offering clients access to
socially responsible investment
Socially responsible investing (SRI), social investment, sustainable socially conscious, "green" or ethical investing, is any investment strategy which seeks to consider both financial return and social/environmental good to bring about socia ...
The Globe and Mail
''The Globe and Mail'' is a Canadian newspaper printed in five cities in western and central Canada. With a weekly readership of approximately 2 million in 2015, it is Canada's most widely read newspaper on weekdays and Saturdays, although it ...
'', March 24, 2016.
In May 2016, the firm announced a partnership with
Mint
MiNT is Now TOS (MiNT) is a free software alternative operating system kernel for the Atari ST system and its successors. It is a multi-tasking alternative to TOS and MagiC. Together with the free system components fVDI device drivers, XaAE ...
, thus allowing clients to sync their Wealthsimple investment account to Mint's budgeting software."Wealthsimple Wins Webby Award, Partners with Mint," ''TechVibes'', May 3, 2016 Also, that month, Wealthsimple launched ''Wealthsimple for Advisors'', an automated platform for
financial advisors
A financial adviser or financial advisor is a professional who provides financial services to clients based on their financial situation. In many countries, financial advisors must complete specific training and be registered with a regulatory ...
. The service is intended for advisors who wish to maintain clients with accounts below their minimum requirements.Fiona Collie "Wealthsimple launches platform for advisors," '' nvestment Executive', May 24, 2016.
On 5 April 2018, the firm launched ''Wealthsimple Save'', a high-interest savings account with a rate that will always be higher than traditional banks. ''Wealthsimple Trade'', a zero-commission stock and
exchange-traded fund
An exchange-traded fund (ETF) is a type of investment fund and exchange-traded product, i.e. they are traded on stock exchanges. ETFs are similar in many ways to mutual funds, except that ETFs are bought and sold from other owners throughout th ...
(ETF) trading mobile app, was available as a beta in August 2018 and publicly launched in March 2019.
As of March 2019, Wealthsimple publicly supports Wealthica synchronization via their secure, open API.
In January 2020, Wealthsimple launched ''Wealthsimple Cash'' for Canadian customers, a hybrid savings/chequing account offering high interest on balances. Spending features such as a Visa Debit card, e-transfers, bill payments, and paycheque/cheque deposits are planned to be rolled out through 2020.
As of March 2020, Wealthsimple Trade became unable to handle the volume of trades their customers were placing and began capping the number of users and putting some investors on to waitlists.
In November that year, Wealthsimple Cash transitioned from a savings account to a peer-to-peer cash transfer app. Having first launched in beta, the app was made widely available in March 2021.
On 8 July 2021, Wealthsimple Trade announced that they would launch fractional shares in the platform, starting the next day.
In October 2022, Wealthsimple announced that it had become Canada's first nonbank, non-credit-union to be approved for a direct settlement account by the Bank of Canada, paving the way for its access to Canada's future real-time-rail payment system.
Products and services
Invest
Wealthsimple Invest is the company's automated investing service, which manages users' investments via a personalized portfolio of low-fee
exchange-traded fund
An exchange-traded fund (ETF) is a type of investment fund and exchange-traded product, i.e. they are traded on stock exchanges. ETFs are similar in many ways to mutual funds, except that ETFs are bought and sold from other owners throughout th ...
s.
Via Wealthsimple for Advisors and also for firms via Wealthsimple for Work, Wealthsimple combines a
robo-advisor Robo-advisors or robo-advisers are a class of financial adviser that provide financial advice and investment management online with moderate to minimal human intervention. They provide digital financial advice based on mathematical rules or algori ...
The Globe and Mail
''The Globe and Mail'' is a Canadian newspaper printed in five cities in western and central Canada. With a weekly readership of approximately 2 million in 2015, it is Canada's most widely read newspaper on weekdays and Saturdays, although it ...
'', May 9, 2016. Each client is provided an
investment advisor
A financial adviser or financial advisor is a professional who provides financial services to clients based on their financial situation. In many countries, financial advisors must complete specific training and be registered with a regulatory ...
who helps match investments to the client's long-term goals and risk tolerance. The company does not occupy retail space; instead its advisors are available via phone, text message, email or video chat. There is no account minimum required and no charge per transaction. An annual fee is charged ranging from 0.4% to 0.5% based on account size. Portfolios are monitored daily and automatically rebalanced if they move beyond certain thresholds.Robb Engen "The Comparison: Battle of the robo-advisers," ''
Toronto Star
The ''Toronto Star'' is a Canadian English-language broadsheet daily newspaper. The newspaper is the country's largest daily newspaper by circulation. It is owned by Toronto Star Newspapers Limited, a subsidiary of Torstar Corporation and par ...
'', March 14, 2016.Andrew Rickard March "Robo advisor drops minimum investment requirement to $0,"The Insurance & Investment Journal March 9, 2016.
In September 2018, the company started offering a micro-investing service called Roundup, which automatically rounds up purchases and invests the extra change into one's Wealthsimple investment account.
Micro-investing is a type of investment strategy that is designed to make investing regular, accessible and affordable, especially for those who may not have a lot of money to invest or who are new to investing.
Cash
Wealthsimple Cash is a peer-to-peer cash transfer platform.
In April 2018, the company began offering Smart Savings (later known as Wealthsimple Save), a
savings account
A savings account is a bank account at a retail bank. Common features include a limited number of withdrawals, a lack of cheque and linked debit card facilities, limited transfer options and the inability to be overdrawn. Traditionally, transa ...
with a 1.7%
interest rate
An interest rate is the amount of interest due per period, as a proportion of the amount lent, deposited, or borrowed (called the principal sum). The total interest on an amount lent or borrowed depends on the principal sum, the interest rate, t ...
. Their site now promotes the rate at 1.0%.
In January 2020, the company launched Wealthsimple Cash for Canadian customers, a hybrid savings/chequing account offering high interest on balances. That November, Wealthsimple Cash transitioned from a savings account to a peer-to-peer cash transfer app. Having first launched in beta, the app was made widely available in March 2021.
On 29 March 2021, Wealthsimple simplified the names of their products and how users see their accounts. Since the update, users are only able to have one Wealthsimple Cash account, and any accounts that are not connected to the Wealthsimple Cash app now appear as ''Wealthsimple Save''.
Trade and Crypto
Wealthsimple Trade is a self-directed investment platform, allowing users to buy and sell various individual stocks and
exchange-traded fund
An exchange-traded fund (ETF) is a type of investment fund and exchange-traded product, i.e. they are traded on stock exchanges. ETFs are similar in many ways to mutual funds, except that ETFs are bought and sold from other owners throughout th ...
s (ETFs) on major Canadian and U.S. exchanges. This platform was introduced in March 2019, offering a stock and ETF trading account with zero-commission fees in the U.S. and Canada. Wealthsimple Trade was the first commission-free trading platform in Canada.
Wealthsimple Crypto is the company's platform for buying and selling several
cryptocurrencies
A cryptocurrency, crypto-currency, or crypto is a digital currency designed to work as a medium of exchange through a computer network that is not reliant on any central authority, such as a government or bank, to uphold or maintain it. It ...
, including BTC and ETH. This service is offered through the same app/web portal as Trade. Much like Trade, this service has no fees. WealthSimple Crypto now allows users to deposit and withdraw select cryptocurrencies to and from self-custody wallets.
Tax
Wealthsimple Tax (formerly SimpleTax) is an all-in-one tax preparation and filing platform.
In September 2019, Wealthsimple acquired SimpleTax, a Canadian tax software company originally launched in 2012. The acquisition of SimpleTax added online tax-return preparation and filing service to Wealthsimple's suite of financial products.
Current operations
Clients
Finances
;Funding
In May 2014, the company initially raised million from investors Eric Kirzner, Joe Canavan, and Roger Martin.
In April 2015, the firm received $10million from Power Financial Corporation in an agreement structured to allow for a future investment of $20million within 12 months. In total, Power Financial Corporation has invested $30million in
Series A
A series A round (also known as series A financing or series A investment) is the name typically given to a company's first significant round of venture capital financing. The name refers to the class of preferred stock sold to investors in exc ...
funding. It is now primarily owned by Power Corporation indirectly at 77.4% (the investments were through their holdings in Power Financial, IGM Financial, and Portag3).
In October 2020, Wealthsimple raised $114million (US$87million) in funding from an investor group led by
Technology Crossover Ventures
TCMI, Inc. better known by the name TCV (Technology Crossover Ventures) is an American investment firm based in Menlo Park, California. The firm mainly invests in public and private growth-stage companies in the technology industry.
Backgroun ...
, in addition to
Greylock Partners
Greylock Partners is one of the oldest venture capital firms, founded in 1965, with committed capital of over $3.5 billion under management. The firm focuses on early-stage companies in the consumer, enterprise software and infrastructure as wel ...
,
Meritech Capital Partners
Meritech Capital Partners is an American Venture Firm company focused on late-stage venture capital investments in information technology companies with a focus on consumer Internet and media, software and services, enterprise infrastructure, ...