Covestor, an online money manager, is being acquired by electronic trading broker Interactive Brokers Group for an undisclosed sum.
People who invest using Covestor can shop around the company’s website, which lists various money managers and traders who run investment portfolios, for a grouping of investments with returns they like. When a user selects an investment manager’s portfolio, Covestor will set up an account for the customer that mirrors the portfolio and any moves the manager makes in it. Covestor and the money manager split any management fees.
Interactive Brokers, based in Greenwich, CT, is an electronic broker that trades on more than 100 electronic exchanges and trading venues worldwide, the company says. The addition of Covestor will help “investors, advisors, hedge funds and money managers to find each other,” Interactive Brokers Chairman and CEO Thomas Peterffy, who founded the company in 1977, said in a statement.
The deal adds more portfolio managers and asset classes to Covestor’s offerings, chief marketing officer Steven Holstein said in the statement. Founded in 2006, Boston-based Covestor was funded by $28 million in venture capital, including a $12.75 million Series B round in 2013 from Union Square Ventures, Spark Capital, Amadeus Capital Partners, and Bay Partners.
