Investment management platform Titan raised $58m in a funding round led by venture capital giant Andreessen Horowitz’s cryptocurrency fund, with participation from celebrities Kevin Durant, Odell Beckham Jr, Jared Leto and Will Smith.
The funding, which comes just five months after it raised a $12.5m Series A led by General Catalyst, also saw existing investors General Catalyst, BoxGroup and Ashton Kutcher’s Sound Ventures participate in the round. In conjunction with the funding, A16z general partner Anish Acharya will be joining Titan’s board.
On August 3, Titan plans to launch its cryptocurrency offering, which the company claims will be the first and only actively managed portfolio of cryptocurrency assets available to U.S. investors. At launch, Titan Crypto will be available to all U.S. residents except those with home addresses in New York. Access for NY-based residents will be provided once Titan’s custodial partner receives regulatory approval for the state’s jurisdiction.
Looking ahead, Titan said it plans to allow other investment managers to launch their products from its “factory.” The company will also use its new capital toward continuing to build out its underlying platform and suite of investment products as well as hiring. It currently has about 30 employees, up from seven a year ago.
The FinTech, whose end goal is to become this century’s answer to Fidelity Investments and BlackRock for millennials and Gen Z, launched its first investment strategy in February of 2018 and today has 30,000 users. Titan’s platform grew by 500% in the last 12 months, largely organically, and expects to cross its first billion in assets under management this year.
At the time of its last raise in February, Titan co-founder and co-CEO Joe Percoco said the startup was approaching $500m in assets under management and was cash flow positive last year. Detailing on how it works, he said, “Any retail client can download our mobile app and immediately after they transfer capital they’re invested in our proprietary strategies,” which are like mutual funds but unlike “the legacy and archaic mutual funds of the past, ours is not a black box it’s an open box,” he said.
“We think the entire stack needs to be rebuilt for this new generation,” said Percoco. “They demand different things, they want everything in real time, they want it fast, they want it on their phone. They expect to have an audience with whoever is the human being on the other side.”
Users need to have at least $100 to invest and either pay a $5 monthly fee or 1 percent if their investment is $10,000 or more.
The firm currently hosts three funds and aims to launch a crypto fund next. The service has already had mutual fund managers reach out who could build products on top of Titan and communicate directly with its customers via the service.
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