Toronto-based Wealthsimple recently received a $30 million investment to follow its mission to “to make smart, simple, low-fee investing accessible to everyone, regardless of net worth or financial knowledge.”
The company was the first in Canada to offer the option to open a digital investment account on desktop and now it’s looking to disrupt mobile investing. Wealthsimple has enabled “simple signups” for both the Android and iOS app, which basically means that anyone in Canada can open an investment account from their mobile device with a “press of a button.”
Wealthsimple’s CEO Michael Katchen recently appeared on BNN’s The Disruptors, stating his belief that the investing industry can be disrupted (again). The company notes on its website that, “Opening an investment account sucks. Mountains of paperwork to sign without reading, complex choices, speaking with commissioned salespeople. It can be intimidating, and we believe it’s holding Canadians back from making smart choices about their money… It’s time for a change.”
Wealthsimple says that you must invest a minimum $5,000 and there are no commission charges. A simple signup can be completed within 10 minutes and they will “build you a globally diversified portfolio of Exchange Traded Funds that is automatically rebalanced and optimized for tax efficiency on a daily basis.”