OpenAI has acquired ROI, a two-year-old AI-powered personal finance app that allows users to manage multiple assets through an interactive digital assistant.
The move reflects OpenAI’s growing focus on creating more personalised consumer experiences powered by AI, claims The Tech Portal.
The acquisition, announced this week, will result in Roi shutting down its app on 15 October 2025. The financial terms of the deal have not been disclosed. Only Roi’s co-founder and CEO, Sujith Vishwajith, will join OpenAI, while the rest of the team will not transition. The deal represents more of an “acqui-hire” than a traditional merger, with OpenAI primarily interested in Vishwajith’s expertise and the technology behind the app’s personalised AI interactions.
Roi, which launched in 2022, was designed to give users a new way to manage their financial portfolios. It aggregated data from a range of assets, including stocks, real estate, cryptocurrencies, decentralised finance holdings and NFTs. The platform stood out in the crowded FinTech market for its conversational AI assistant, which could adjust its tone and style to suit the user’s preferences — ranging from formal and analytical to humorous and casual. The company raised around $3.6m from investors including Spark Capital and Gradient Ventures but struggled to scale amid rising competition and compliance challenges.
For OpenAI, the acquisition aligns with its strategy to develop AI systems that are not just intelligent but feel natural and human to interact with. Vishwajith’s experience in making complex financial data simple and approachable supports this goal, particularly as OpenAI looks to expand the capabilities of its AI models in consumer-facing applications.
The move follows a series of similar acquisitions by OpenAI in recent months, including Context.ai, Crossing Minds, and the $1.1bn purchase of product-testing startup Statsig. These acquisitions underscore the company’s broader effort to integrate personalisation and adaptive learning across its AI offerings.
However, OpenAI’s push towards more personal and data-driven AI has not been without controversy. In December 2024, Italy’s data protection authority fined the company €15m for violating GDPR transparency and lawful processing requirements. More recently, a March 2025 WIRED investigation reported that OpenAI’s video generator tool, Sora, sometimes produced content reinforcing sexist and racist stereotypes, raising ongoing concerns about AI ethics and responsible innovation.
OpenAI CEO Sam Altman has positioned these acquisitions as part of the company’s mission to humanise AI, making its interactions not only smarter but also more intuitive and engaging. With Roi’s founder joining the team, OpenAI appears to be doubling down on that strategy — bringing in talent that understands how to blend financial insight, data personalisation and emotional intelligence into AI products.
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