Wealthsimple Eyes Acquisitions After $610 Million Funding Round
- CEO Katchen says he won’t rush an IPO despite hot tech market
- Firm seeks new capabilities en route to 15 million-user goal
Photographer: Galit Rodan/Bloomberg
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Power Corp. of Canada’s Wealthsimple online brokerage, flush with cash after a funding round that valued it at about $4 billion, may put some of that money to use making acquisitions as it works to expand its user base more than sevenfold.
Founder and Chief Executive Officer Michael Katchen has been working on building out capabilities -- including cash, checking, insurance and mortgage products -- to add to the firm’s trading and automated-investing investing platforms. The goal is to become users’ primary financial institution and boost the user base to 15 million from its current 2 million in the next five years, which would make it the largest consumer-finance company in Canada.