BlackRock has become an anchor investor in Acorns Grow Inc., an investment app designed to help people get into the habit of saving, a news release said. Financial terms of the investment were not disclosed.
Acorns automatically invests individual users' spare change from their daily purchases into a portfolio of diversified exchange-traded funds. It also helps educate users on how to save and invest for retirement. Acorns currently has more than 3.3 million investment accounts.
"Our partnership is … rooted in the shared commitment of our two firms to use technology to help more and more people improve the way they engage with, save and ultimately invest their money," said Rob Goldstein, BlackRock's chief operating officer and global head of BlackRock Solutions, in the news release. BlackRock will use what it learns from how Acorns customers use investment technologies to improve upon their technology systems, Mr. Goldstein said.
As part of the partnership, BlackRock will take an "observer seat" on Acorns' board.
Acorns CEO Noah Kerner added in the release: "This partnership supports our shared ambition to put the tools of wealth-making in everyone's hands." Mr. Kerner noted that, being a reader of "Larry's Letter," BlackRock Chairman and CEO Laurence D. Fink's annual open letter to CEOs, he couldn't "think of a better collaborator."
BlackRock had $6.317 trillion in assets under management as of March 31.
