A stockbroker is a regulated broker, broker-dealer, or registered investment adviser who may provide financial advisory and investment management services and execute transactions such as the purchase or sale of stocks and other investments to financial market participants in return for a commission, markup, or fee, which could be based on a flat rate, percentage of assets, or hourly rate. The term also refers to financial companies, offering such services.
Benchmark is a venture capital firm based in San Francisco that provides seed money to startups.
The Motley Fool is a private financial and investing advice company based in Alexandria, Virginia. It was founded in July 1993 by co-chairmen and brothers David Gardner and Tom Gardner, and Erik Rydholm, who has since left the company. The company employs over 300 people worldwide.
Klarna Bank AB, commonly referred to as Klarna, is a Swedish fintech company that provides online financial services such as payments for online storefronts and direct payments along with post-purchase payments.
Merrill Edge is an electronic trading platform provided by BofA Securities, part of Bank of America's retail banking division. It was launched on June 21, 2010.
SoFi Technologies, Inc. is an American online personal finance company. Based in San Francisco, SoFi provides financial products including student and auto loan refinancing, mortgages, personal loans, credit card, investing, and banking through both mobile app and desktop interfaces.
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 algorithms. These algorithms are designed by financial advisors, investment managers and data scientists, and coded in software by programmers. These algorithms are executed by software and do not require a human advisor to impart financial advice to a client. The software utilizes its algorithms to automatically allocate, manage and optimize clients' assets for either short-run or long-run investment. Robo-advisors are categorized based on the extent of personalization, discretion, involvement, and human interaction.
Stockspot is an online investment adviser and fund manager based in Sydney, Australia. It is the first fully paperless digital investment advice platform in Australia and provides consumers with access to professional investment services for less than the typical cost of a traditional financial adviser or wealth manager.
Financial technology is the technology and innovation that aims to compete with traditional financial methods in the delivery of financial services. It is an emerging industry that uses technology to improve activities in finance. The use of smartphones for mobile banking, investing, borrowing services, and cryptocurrency are examples of technologies aiming to make financial services more accessible to the general public. Financial technology companies consist of both startups and established financial institutions and technology companies trying to replace or enhance the usage of financial services provided by existing financial companies. A subset of fintech companies that focus on the insurance industry are collectively known as insurtech or insuretech companies.
EquityZen is an online marketplace for trading pre-IPO employee shares from privately held companies. The platform often links employees from private companies with investors who would not otherwise be able to invest in the company prior to an IPO. EquityZen is based in Manhattan's Flatiron District.
Wealthsimple Inc. is a Canadian online investment management service focused on millennials. The firm was founded in September 2014 by Michael Katchen and is based in Toronto. As of November 2021, the firm holds over C$15 billion in assets under management. It is primarily owned by Power Corporation indirectly at 70.1% through investments made through their holdings in Power Financial, IGM Financial and Portag3.
Cadre is a New York–based financial technology company that provides individuals and institutions direct access to large commercial properties. The business and financial press describe it as a service that "makes the real estate market more like the stock market" by allowing investors to select the individual transactions in which they participate, while investing a smaller amount than would be required to fully fund a transaction. For example, 12 institutional investors participated in a $60 million office building purchase. The firm was named to Forbes' "FinTech50" for 4 years in a row starting in 2016. In 2019, Cadre was the cover story of the Forbes "FinTech 50" issue. In 2018, a partnership with Goldman Sachs was announced through which Goldman Sachs' private wealth clients committed at least $250 million (USD) real estate investments through Cadre. In 2020, Cadre announced its "Direct Access" fund intended to include smaller investors with a $400 million target raise. The company also offers a managed portfolio service and a real estate secondary market, as well as a cash holdings account called "Cadre Cash". The company has announced plans to address racial injustice in the United States by investing at least 10% of its Direct Access fund investments with minority-owned operators and increasing its cash held in black-owned banks.
PayU is a Netherlands-based payment service provider to online merchants. The company was founded in 2002 and is headquartered in Hoofddorp. It allows online businesses to accept and process payments through payment methods that can be integrated with web and mobile applications. As of 2018, the service is available in 17 countries. The firm is owned by the Naspers Group, which also owns a stake in one of its sister companies, Tencent.
Ron Suber is an American investor. He has held executive positions at Bear Stearns, Spectrum Global, Merlin Securities, Wells Fargo Securities, and Prosper Marketplace. He is also an investor in sixteen financial technology companies.
Wahed is an American financial technology and services company based in New York City, New York. In July 2019, the company launched the first exchange-traded fund in the United States that was compliant with Sharia law. Wahed operates in 130 countries and has offices in Washington D.C, New York, London and Dubai. According to CNBC, it has a valuation of $100 million.
Cocoon Capital is a Singapore-based venture capital fund focusing on online, early-stage, enterprise tech companies in Southeast Asia. It was founded by Michael Robert Blakey and William Klippgen in 2016.
Refinitiv is an American-British global provider of financial market data and infrastructure. The company was founded in 2018. It is a subsidiary of London Stock Exchange Group after a US$27 billion dollar sale from previous owners Blackstone Group LP which held a 55% stake and Thomson Reuters which owned 45%. The company has an annual turnover of $6 billion with more than 40,000 client companies in 190 countries.
Aspiration is an American personal finance company based in Marina del Rey, California.
Acorns is an American financial technology and financial services company based in Irvine, California that specializes in micro-investing and robo-investing. According to Fortune's Impact 20 list for the year 2020, Acorns had 8.2 million customers and $3 billion in assets under management.
Steve Lockshin is an entrepreneur and financial advisor, focusing on ultra high-net-worth clients. He is a founder of a number of companies, such as Fortigent in 1994, Advizent in 2012, and Advice Period in 2013.
