Wealthfront is reportedly for sale, but is a $1.5B price tag too high a hill to climb?

This week, news outlets reported that digital financial planning platform Wealthfront – one of the early so-called robo-advisers – is exploring a sale.

Why should we care?
Wealthfront, according to recent reports, is aiming for a $1.5B price tag and looking for buyers. It hired investment bank Quatalyst Partners to help it find one, apparently after previous attempts to sell the company – including a possible sale to the Royal Bank of Canada – didn’t work out. The company also explored mergers with special-purpose acquisition companies, according to unnamed sources cited in a report. In recent years, Wealthfront has expanded its product suite to align with trends in the market, including the introduction of crypto-related services and self-directed investment offerings. The company has more than $25B in assets under management. The market for robo-advisers has become quite saturated in recent years, and large incumbents have rolled out their own robo copycat products. Betterment, Wealthfront’s closest rival robo-adviser, has about $32B in assets under management.