The leading retail investment platform Robinhood announced Monday that it has acquired Pluto, an AI-powered investment advisory company that was positioned to give Generation Z guidance on their financial futures.
While the use of AI in analyzing markets and developing investment strategies is increasingly common, the acquisition appears to be Robinhood’s first attempt to bring the technology to its more than 10 million monthly active users.
Mayank Agarwal, Robinhood’s VP of Engineering, said in the announcement that the company seeks to leverage Pluto’s “expertise in artificial intelligence coupled with a passion for the mission to democratize finance to complement our team’s efforts to bring empowered tools from AI to our customers”.
Pluto offered web-based services such as enhanced data analysis, personalized investment strategies, real-time insights and portfolio optimization delivered through “Conversational AI without judgment.” Described as an “investing co-pilot”, its system provided advanced data analytics using large language models to process market data, identify trends and opportunities faster, and tailor investment recommendations to individual client profiles based on risk tolerance and financial goals.
Pluto has since taken its service offline, labeling its site as “for informational purposes only.”
Pluto’s founder and CEO is Jacob Sansbury, who started the company at age 24 and was praised on Pluto’s TikTok channel as a “Gen Z boss.” He previously worked at NVIDIA’s cloud gaming service and, according to Robinhood, was the youngest engineer ever hired at Connecticut-based asset manager Bridgewater, where he worked on “quantitative finance and systematic investing.”
Sansbury will now join Robinhood and help “integrate AI-powered capabilities across the Robinhood platform,” the company said.
“Robinhood is the ideal destination to build products that democratize access to financial services like wealth management and financial planning through cutting-edge AI,” Sansbury said in the release.
Robinhood and its mobile apps are known for providing a user-friendly interface for retail investors to trade stocks, options and cryptocurrencies. Its accessibility gave the platform an outsized role in the “meme stock” craze of 2021 that saw individual investors flock to shares of companies like GameStop, roiling Wall Street.
The company has expanded its offerings recently, adding services such as pension products and credit cards. Last month, Robinhood acquired Bitstamp, a cryptocurrency exchange, for $200 million.
Edited by Ryan Ozawa.
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