Acorns hires ex-Amazon executive as chairman, says crypto investment is coming

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Glands President David Hijirida

Courtesy of: Mo Osborne | Tassels

The investment and savings app Acorns hired a former Amazon executive and fintech CEO to run day-to-day operations ahead of the start-up’s debut as a state-owned company, CNBC has learned.

The company is expected to announce on Wednesday that it has appointed David Hijirida as chairman, according to CEO Noah Kerner. Hijirida began her career in strategic roles in traditional banks, spent 12 years at Amazon managing areas such as global payments and advertising, and was CEO of digital bank Simple Finance from 2018 until it closed. in May.

Acorns is sourcing seasoned managers ahead of its scheduled public listing later this year. In May, the company revealed it was merging with Pioneer Merger Corp., a special purpose acquisition company, at a valuation of $ 2.2 billion. Last month, he named Rich Sullivan, chief financial officer of Twitter, his new chief financial officer.

“David obviously has a lot of background in financial services and technology,” Kerner said in a telephone interview. “He really has a great combination of fintech, payments, operations and also product development experience.”

Hijirida’s appointment will allow the CEO to focus on his vision for the fintech company, including future products and the brand, Kerner said. Acorns has over 4 million paying subscribers and aims to reach 10 million by 2025, he said.

Noah Kerner, CEO of Acorns.

Adam Jeffery | CNBC

While many start-ups have been able to stay private due to wide access to capital, Acorns is going public to accelerate its mission of helping people build wealth, Kerner said. This will help raise its profile with potential users, allow it to acquire targets and potentially expand outside of the United States, he said.

Without naming specific companies, Kerner compared Acorn’s business model to the approach of banks and fintech players that make users spend money or trade more frequently. The free Robinhood trading app, which went public in July, has come under fire for relying on industry bribes called payment for order flow, a practice currently under review by regulators.

Acorn’s automated investing service allows clients to invest the currency of their card transactions into a managed ETF wallet for a monthly fee of $ 1- $ 5.

“Everything Acorns does is save and invest for the long term for the everyday consumer,” said Kerner. “This is why our subscription model is so important, because it decouples the business from behaviors that are not necessarily customer-aligned, like conducting business or spending or borrowing.”

Acorns app on a mobile phone

Source: Acorns

As a result, Acorns has been more conservative than some fintech peers that have driven rapid growth by adding capabilities, including allowing the purchase of bitcoin and other digital coins. On its website, Acorns states that users currently do not have access to cryptocurrencies because their value “can fluctuate dramatically in a day,” calling it a speculative investment.

But in the latest sign of continued adoption of the nascent asset class, Acorns will soon allow users to invest in crypto within diverse portfolios, Kerner said.

“We’re going to let people customize their portfolios and add individual stocks and cryptocurrencies to a slice of their diversified portfolios, much like a fund manager would advise you to behave,” Kerner said.

This will happen in the context of educating users on the benefits of asset diversification, he said.

“We haven’t announced a launch date yet,” Kerner said, “but it’s happening.”

Disclosure: NBCUniversal and Comcast Ventures are investors in Acorns, and CNBC has a content partnership with it.

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