Page 73 - Forbes - USA (March 2020)
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T H E FO R B E S F I N T EC H 5 0
lending out your margined securities to short-
I C A P I TA L N E T WO R K K I N D U R Ì sellers, except that there you’re unlikely to get cut
in on the revenue.
NEW YORK CITY NEW YORK CITY
Another Coinbase product, called USD Coin,
INVESTING INVESTING
developed in partnership with cryptocurrency
Platform allows high-net-worth Hybrid advice service lures
exchange Circle, lets customers put up U.S. dol-
clients to invest as little as Boomers with free robo-
lars in exchange for a cryptocurrency that has the
$25,000 per fund in private eq- retirement-income plans, then
same value but can be traded more quickly. The
uity, debt, VC and hedge funds. pitches comprehensive money
dollars in question earn interest that Coinbase 71
management with a dedicated
FUNDING: $80 million; latest shares with its customers.
1
valuation of $700 million human advisor for 0.50% of
assets on accounts of $5,000- Coinbase says it handled $80 billion of trans-
BONA FIDES: $47 billion in assets I
invested through the platform plus, 0.25% on $500,000-plus. actions last year. (Binance boasts of a dai- N
ly volume that annualizes to $1 trillion.) Is that
V
COFOUNDER & CEO: FUNDING: $11 million; latest E
Lawrence Calcano, 57 valuation of $35 million enough for a profit? CFO Haas allows that the S
1
T
bottom line flits in and out of the plus column M
BONA FIDES: 21,000 people with E
$14 billion in retirement savings from month to month. But, she adds, if you ex- N
have built free plans on Kindur clude non-cash items like charges for goodwill T
since its launch last April G
amortization and the hypothetical value of em- U
FOUNDER & CEO: ployee options, Coinbase has been solidly in the I
Rhian Horgan, 42 E
D
black for several years.
•
In a firm fixated on growth, the money goes out
T
L E M O N A D E the door almost as quickly as it comes in. Coin- H
E
base has quadrupled its staff to 1,000 since hir-
NEW YORK CITY I
L
ing chief operating officer Emilie Choi two years S
INSURANCE T
ago. At headquarters, construction workers can
SNEJINA ZACHARIA Sells renters’ insurance from barely keep up with the new hires streaming out
$5 a month and homeowners’ of the onboarding room. There are offices in New
I N S U R I F Y Ì from $25 a month using AI to York, Dublin and Tokyo. And then there are bets
approve coverage in 90 sec-
CAMBRIDGE, MASSACHUSETTS on the future.
onds and pay claims in as lit-
INSURANCE tle as three minutes. Discour- Choi, who came to Coinbase after doing
Comparison site aims to use ages bogus claims by donating business development at LinkedIn, has taken
AI to sell auto, home and life excess (after claims, expenses the venture capital portfolio from nothing to 60
policies online, without buyers and fixed fee) to charity. Now firms. It includes Bison Trails in New York City
talking to human agents. in 26 states, D.C. and Germany. and Alchemy in San Francisco, both aiming to
FUNDING: $480 million; latest help corporations use blockchains, and Amber
FUNDING: $30 million
1
valuation of $2.1 billion Group in Shenzhen, China, which is applying
BONA FIDES: Has closed 130,000
auto policies, 67% of them BONA FIDES: More than 500,000 artificial intelligence to cryptocurrency trading.
without touch of human agent customers, producing annual Says Choi: “A lot of the stuff that we’re doing in
recurring revenue of $115 million
COFOUNDER & CEO: the venture side of the house is things we prob-
Snejina Zacharia, 43, a native COFOUNDERS: CEO Daniel ably wouldn’t do as a principal but that we think
of Bulgaria Schreiber, 49; COO Shai
Wininger, 46 are really interesting.”
Armstrong adds, “These venture bets could be
KABBAGE L I V E LY Ì huge, but we don’t know if they’re gonna work.
ATLANTA
SAN FRANCISCO
B2B LENDING
PERSONAL FINANCE
Its automated system approves
Digital health-savings-account
lines of credit up to $200,000
platform offers workers access Money Moves 2020
in minutes. New service helps
to fee-free investing (through
small businesses manage RIDE THE STOCK MARKET WITH TRAINING WHEELS
TD Ameritrade) of money
invoices and receivables.
they’ve socked away tax-free Know someone with only $50 to invest? Mobile app
FUNDING: $489 million; latest for future medical costs. Stash offers fractional purchases of stocks, and
valuation of $1.2 billion Acorns, a “round-up” app, moves extra pennies from
FUNDING: $42 million; latest credit- and debit-card purchases into ETFs. No-fee,
BONA FIDES: Has loaned more valuation of $112 million no-minimum custodial Roth IRAs are available from
1
than $9 billion, including about both Schwab and Fidelity for youngsters with earned
$3 billion in 2019, to 220,000 BONA FIDES: Users have nearly income. Roths grow tax-free for retirement, and origi-
small businesses $200 million in accounts, double nal contributions can be taken out without penalty or
the amount a year ago
COFOUNDERS: tax at any time. A word of warning, though: Don’t try
CEO Rob Frohwein, 52; COFOUNDERS: CEO Alex Cyriac, this if your kid might qualify for need-based aid from
president Kathryn Petralia, 49 37, and COO Shobin Uralil, 38 a private college. —A.E.
M A R C H 2 0 2 0 F O R B E S . C O M
