Zoe Financial is transforming how Americans approach their personal finances, and it hasn’t gone unnoticed by investors.
Zoe’s recent strong execution and traction, after their $2M angel investment round last September, attracted new investors taking their total fundraising to $5M.
Third Stream Partners (led by former Chairman of Financial Engines Blake Grossman), Stephanie Demarco (Founder of Advent Technology), and Brian Finn (former President of Credit Suisse First Boston), are the most recent Zoe investors. Existing investors also participated in the round, including Chris Jones (former co-CIO of Blackrock’s Global Active Equities) and current JP Morgan Asset Management CEO George Gatch.
Chris Jones was attracted to Zoe because “finding a high-quality financial advisor is a highly inefficient and ineffective process and is ripe for modernization using digital technology.” He added, “Zoe’s strong traction this past year further validates the need for this service. Wealth Management is a trillion-dollar industry primed for digital disruption and transformation, and Zoe is rapidly emerging as a leader in that market.”
Zoe CEO and founder, Andres Garcia-Amaya, a Morgan Stanley alum and former JP Morgan Executive Director, says their recent success “is a result of remaining focused on controlling the quality of advisors that join the network and removing friction points to the consumer digital experience.” While adding that “there is no question, technological innovation coupled with shifts in client preferences threaten large banks & brokerages. They are still stuck delivering access to financial products as the value proposition, but what the client wants is highly personalized advice.” Zoe makes the matchmaking process easy, with a curated network of the top independent financial advisors that are accredited Certified Financial Planners (CFPs,) CFAs, or CPAs; accessible though Zoe’s friction-less digital journey where savvy consumers get connected to their ideal advisors via a high-powered algorithm.
After launching in February 2018, Zoe had a few clients with less than $3M of combined investable assets that used their matching algorithm to hire an advisor. Eighteen months later, Zoe now boasts hundreds of clients with more than $140M of investable assets that have hired their independent fiduciary advisor through the network.
The startup has already picked up top talent from innovative fin-tech companies like Learnvest on the product side, as well as top engineering talent, and will be using the new investment capital to accelerate their product development.