LearnVest

Last updated
LearnVest Inc.
Company type Subsidiary
Industry Personal finance, Software
Founded2009
Founder Alexa von Tobel [1] [2] [3]
Defunct2018 [4]
Headquarters New York, New York, United States
Area served
United States
RevenueN/A
Parent Northwestern Mutual Life
Website LearnVest.com

LearnVest was an American financial planning company founded by CEO Alexa von Tobel. It sells personal finance software.

Contents

History

Alexa von Tobel entered Harvard Business School in the fall of 2008, but took a leave of absence and launched LearnVest. [5] [6] [7] Her inspiration for LearnVest started while she was a senior at Harvard University in 2006. [8]

LearnVest's headquarters are in New York, and they have an Expert Hub in Phoenix. [9] [10] LearnVest was selected as a TechCrunch50 2009 Company and debuted in September 2009 at the TechCrunch50 conference in San Francisco. [11]

On March 25, 2015, Northwestern Mutual Life Insurance Co., based in Milwaukee, announced it would acquire LearnVest. Financial terms of the deal weren’t disclosed. LearnVest will continue to operate as a separate unit under founder and Chief Executive von Tobel. The deal has been viewed as the latest attempt by traditional financial services firms to adapt to new digital technologies. Northwestern Mutual expects the technology will encourage more adviser-client interaction and ultimately create a more rewarding experience for the customer and adviser. By adding LearnVest’s technology to the insurer’s existing planning platform, those advisers can devote more time to working with customers on carrying out their recommendations. The arrangement also puts customers in more frequent contact with those advisers. [11]

On May 3, 2018, LearnVest discontinued its financial planning offering for consumers, as well as its LearnVest@Work program for businesses. [12]

Services

The LearnVest Program focuses on behavior change and “takes you from cutting expenses to budgeting for goals to investing your money.” [13] Clients work with LearnVest Planners to make progress on their money. [14] There are “three tiers of access to financial plans” [15] The LearnVest Program was featured in von Tobel’s New York Times Bestseller, Financially Fearless. [16]

Money Center Tool

The Money Center is an online tool that lets users track their spending, visualize their budgets and financial goals. [17] In addition to the built-in budgeting system, full goal tracking, full trends and analysis, and a financial inbox, Money Center allows live co-viewing of user’s account and dashboard between the user and his or her LearnVest financial planner. [18]

LearnVest Planning

LearnVest Planning, a subsidiary of LearnVest Inc., is a Registered Investment Advisor through which LearnVest employs Certified Financial Planners nationwide. [19] As a registered SEC financial advisor, LearnVest is able to offer portfolio recommendations and general investment advice.[ citation needed ]

iPhone and iPad apps

LearnVest released free iPhone and iPad apps that help users track their spending and their financial goals. The LearnVest app was featured as an iTunes App Store New & Noteworthy pick. [20]

Investment and finances

LearnVest raised a $4.5 million Series A round, [21] a $19 million Series B round, [22] a $16.5 million Series C round, and a $28 million Series D round. [13]

Investors include Accel Partners, Northwestern Mutual, American Express Ventures, Claritas Capital, Ed Mathias of The Carlyle Group, and Todd Ruppert of T. Rowe Price. [13] [23]

Events

The company hosted its first live event, LearnVest LIVE, in New York City in October 2012, featuring lectures by fashion designer Cynthia Rowley, Cosmo editor and Project Runway mentor Joanna Coles, Top Chef judge Gail Simmons and Gilt Groupe cofounder Alexandra Wilkis Wilson. [24] LearnVest has since held LIVE events in Los Angeles, Boston and San Francisco. [25] [26] [27] In 2014, LearnVest CEO Alexa von Tobel kicked off a 20-city book tour for Financially Fearless. [28] The book tour focused on going across the country to help people make progress on their money. [28]

Press and awards

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Yodlee</span> American personal finance software company

Yodlee is a web application software company that provides consumer-permissioned data aggregation, consolidating information from multiple accounts by using open banking APIs.

Mint, also known as Intuit Mint and formerly known as Mint.com, was a personal financial management website and mobile app for the US and Canada produced by Intuit, Inc..

Klarna Bank AB, commonly referred to as Klarna, is a Swedish fintech company that provides online financial services. The company provides payment processing services for the e-commerce industry, managing store claims and customer payments. The company is a "buy now, pay later" service provider.

Alexa von Tobel is the founder and CEO of LearnVest.com, a personal finance website, and the founder and Managing Partner of Inspired Capital. Von Tobel is the author of the New York Times bestseller Financially Fearless, which came out on December 31, 2013, and the author of Financially Forward, which came out on May 14, 2019. In April 2014, von Tobel was selected as an inaugural member of the Presidential Ambassadors for Global Entrepreneurship, alongside Steve Case, Reid Hoffman, Tory Burch and others. Von Tobel is the host of Inc.'s The Founders Project with Alexa von Tobel podcast.

NerdWallet is an American personal finance company, founded in 2009 by Tim Chen and Jacob Gibson. It has a website and app that earns money by promoting financial products to its users.

Numbrs Personal Finance AG is a financial technology company based in Switzerland. The company offers an app called Numbrs that aggregates bank account and credit card information and facilitates mobile banking and personal financial planning.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">StockTwits</span> Social media site for investors

StockTwits is a social media platform designed for sharing ideas between investors, traders, and entrepreneurs. The company was co-founded by Howard Lindzon and Soren Macbeth in 2009. The company received the first Shorty Award in the 2008 finance category. Time magazine listed the company as one of its 2010 "50 best websites." The company was also named one of the "top 10 most innovative companies in finance" in 2012 by FastCompany. In June 2013, StockTwits had 230,000 active members. By mid-2019, that figure had increased to 2 million, and the company premiered free online trading via an iOS app. In 2022, the Stocktwits platform added crypto and equities trading to the platform.

CurrencyFair is an online currency exchange platform that until 2023 offered a peer-to-peer currency exchange service. CurrencyFair is headquartered in Ireland and also has employees in the UK, Australia, Greece, Hong Kong, Poland and Singapore. The company has established working sectors in Newcastle (UK), New South Wales (Australia), Singapore and Hong Kong. CurrencyFair provides international money transfers in 20 global currencies.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">BillGuard</span>

BillGuard was a personal finance security and productivity company. Its mobile and website application scans credit card and debit card transactions, alerting users to possible scams, billing errors, fraudulent charges and hidden fees.

SoFi Technologies, Inc. is an American online personal finance company and online bank. Based in San Francisco, SoFi provides financial products including student loan refinancing, mortgages, personal loans, credit card, investing, and banking through both mobile app and desktop interfaces.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Northwestern Mutual</span> American financial services company

Northwestern Mutual is an American financial services mutual organization based in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. The financial security company provides consultation on wealth and asset income protection, education planning, retirement planning, investment advisory services, Financial Planning trust and private client services, estate planning and business planning. Its products include life insurance, permanent life insurance, disability income, and long-term care insurance; annuities; investments; and investment advisory products and services. Northwestern Mutual ranked No. 90 on the 2021 Fortune 500 list of the largest United States corporations by total revenue and is in the top 30 by assets held. The firm distributes a portion of its earnings to eligible policyholders as annual dividends.

Personal financial management refers to "ways" or "methods" of managing ones own personal finances. It is also known by its acronym, PFM, which refers to the type of software used for personal finance apps. Simply put, PFM refers to software that helps users manage their money. PFM often lets users categorize transactions and add accounts from multiple institutions into a single view. PFM also typically includes data visualizations such as spending trends, budgets and net worth.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Wealthfront</span> Automated investment service firm

Wealthfront Inc. is an automated investment service firm based in Palo Alto, California, founded by Andy Rachleff and Dan Carroll in 2008. As of November 2023, Wealthfront had $50 billion AUM across 700,000 accounts.

Hedgeable, Inc. is a U.S. based financial services company and digital wealth management platform headquartered in New York City. Hedgeable doesn't follow set allocations, but actively manages accounts in response to market movements.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Vedantu</span> Indian Multinational Educational technology company

Vedantu is an Indian multinational online tutoring platform launched in 2014 based in Bengaluru, India. It primarily provides services to students from grades 4 to 12.

Voleo is a Canadian financial services company, headquartered in Vancouver. Voleo enables users to form investment clubs with people they trust to democratically manage a portfolio of publicly traded securities.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Scripbox</span>

Scripbox is a Bengaluru-based digital wealth management service founded in 2012.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Kuvera.in</span> Indian Financial Services company

Kuvera is an Indian online wealth management platform for mutual funds, digital gold, fixed deposits, cryptocurrency exchange, insurance & US ETF investment. It is operated by Arevuk Advisory Services Pvt. Ltd., a company headquartered in Bangalore.

ET Money is an Indian fintech and wealth management platform owned by Times Internet, a wholly owned subsidiary of Bennett Coleman & Co. Ltd. It was founded in 2015. It offers a variety of financial products and services, including mutual funds, insurance, fixed deposits, NPS and SIPs. The investments tracked and managed on the app is US$3 billion as of March 2022.

Moneyview is an Indian fintech company, based in Bangalore. Its parent company is Whizdm Finance Private Limited, an Indian non-deposit non-banking financial company(NBFC-ND) registered with Reserve Bank of India. Moneyview operates in the space of digital lending and money management. Moneyview provides products like personal loans, personal finance manager, EMI calculators, and credit score tracking.

References

  1. "ELISA Kit, Antibody, Protein and more | MyBioSource Blog". Your-story.org. Retrieved 2015-11-17.
  2. White, William N. (2009-10-29). "Personal Finance Web Site To Debut | News | The Harvard Crimson". Thecrimson.com. Retrieved 2015-11-17.
  3. Howell, Korey (October 13, 2016). "Have An Idea For The Perfect App? Act On It!" . Retrieved 2019-07-30.
  4. "Northwestern Mutual shutting down LearnVest". 7 May 2018.
  5. "ELISA Kit, Antibody, Protein and more | MyBioSource Blog". Your-story.org. Retrieved 2015-11-17.
  6. White, William N. (2009-10-29). "Personal Finance Web Site To Debut | News | The Harvard Crimson". Thecrimson.com. Retrieved 2015-11-17.
  7. Howell, Korey (October 13, 2016). "Have An Idea For The Perfect App? Act On It!" . Retrieved 2019-07-30.
  8. Banjo, Shelly (March 26, 2015). "Dropping out of Harvard Business School may have been the best decision of this woman's life". Quartz. Retrieved 2019-07-30.
  9. "LearnVest Raises $16.5 Million". Business Insider. 2013-07-26. Retrieved 2015-11-17.
  10. "Why Most Twentysomethings Dont Understand Personal Finance". Archived from the original on January 26, 2010. Retrieved February 22, 2015.
  11. 1 2 Moyer, Liz (March 25, 2015). "LearnVest" . Retrieved February 22, 2015.
  12. "Northwestern Mutual and LearnVest Take Next Step in Integration". Newsroom | Northwestern Mutual. Retrieved 2018-10-14.
  13. 1 2 3 "Personalized Financial Planning Service LearnVest Raises $28M From Northwestern Mutual Capital". TechCrunch. 2014-04-15. Retrieved 2015-11-17.
  14. "Putnam Investments To Provide 401(K) Participants With Access To Financial Wellness Services To Help Plan and Prepare For Retirement". Putnam.com. 2013-09-09. Archived from the original on 2015-11-18. Retrieved 2015-11-17.
  15. "Financial Advice for Those With Small Nest Eggs". The New York Times . Retrieved 2015-11-17.
  16. "Alexa von Tobel talks money mindset in "Financially Fearless" book". Blogs.denverpost.com. 2014-01-27. Retrieved 2015-11-17.
  17. Hardawar, Devindra (11 September 2012). "Financial planning for all: LearnVest gets its biggest update yet". Venture Beat.
  18. 1 2 Perez, Sarah (11 September 2012). "It's Not Just For Women Anymore: LearnVest Brings Financial – And Now Investment – Planning To Everyone". TechCrunch.
  19. Carrns, Ann (11 September 2012). "LearnVest Dips Its Toes Into Investment Advice". The New York Times .
  20. iTunes App Store (2012). "LearnVest". Apple.
  21. Miller, Claire Cain (1 April 2010). "Accel Invests in Personal Finance Site for Women". The New York Times .
  22. Rao, Leena (12 July 2011). "Accel And Others Put 19M In Female-Focused Personal Finance Guide LearnVest". TechCrunch.
  23. Casserly, Meghan (26 July 2013). "LearnVest Planning's $16.5 Million Cash Infusion". Forbes.
  24. "Announcing: LearnVest LIVE, an Inspiring Evening of Lifestyle and Money Advice". Fox Business. Archived from the original on 2013-07-10.
  25. "LearnVest LIVE: A Night to be Financially Fearless - New York Calendar". Guest of a Guest. Retrieved 2015-11-17.
  26. "LearnVest LIVE is coming to Los Angeles!". Archived from the original on July 14, 2014. Retrieved June 11, 2014.
  27. Schicktanz, Julie (2014-01-15). "LearnVest-Inspired Book, Financially Fearless, Tops Charts as Best Seller". Finovate. Retrieved 2015-11-17.
  28. 1 2 "I'm Alexa von Tobel, Founder of LearnVest, and This Is How I Work". Lifehacker.com. 2013-06-23. Retrieved 2015-11-17.
  29. Casserly, Meghan (20 June 2012). "Top 100 Websites for Women 2012". Venture Beat.
  30. Shontell, Alyson (21 September 2011). "2011 Digital 100: The complete list 1-100". Business Insider.
  31. McCracken, Harry (16 August 2011). "50 Websites That Make the Web Great". Time. Archived from the original on August 17, 2011.
  32. Penn, David (2015-03-27). "LearnVest Acquired by Northwestern Mutual for More than $250 Million". Finovate. Retrieved 2015-11-17.
  33. Brittany Dowell (2014-03-07). "We're Proud to Announce Influence & Co.'s 3rd Annual MVP Awards!". Blog.influenceandco.com. Retrieved 2015-11-17.