Who Owns Betterment?

Jon Stein conceived Betterment at Columbia Business School and launched it in 2010 after founding the company in 2008 with co-founder Eli Broverman, a securities attorney. The idea was direct: automate portfolio investing using low-cost ETFs and software so that ordinary investors could get diversified, tax-optimized portfolios without paying an advisor's full fee.

Betterment is widely credited as the first major robo-advisor, a term it both created and spent years resisting as it evolved beyond the original model. It launched at the TechCrunch Disrupt conference in 2010 and grew steadily through the 2010s as the category it pioneered attracted incumbents: Schwab, Vanguard, and Fidelity all launched competing automated services, compressing fees across the industry.

The company expanded from a single retail product into a platform. It added a Premium tier with human advisor access, launched a cash management product, built Betterment for Advisors as an RIA custodian, entered the 401(k) market, and added crypto investing through its 2022 acquisition of Makara. In 2026 it shifted its Digital pricing to a $5 monthly flat fee that converts to 0.25 percent at higher balances.

Assets under management climbed from roughly $16 billion in 2019 to $56 billion by late 2025 and $70 billion by mid-2026, with more than 1.3 million accounts and over one million total customers. Sarah Levy has described the ambition as building the definitive wealth brand for the millennial generation.