附近上门

is leading a $10 million Series A round of funding into , a digital marketplace for people to find and hire vetted independent financial advisers.

Subscribe to the 附近上门 Daily

Zoe, headquartered in New York, was founded in 2016 by and launched its marketplace in 2018. It includes a curated network of independent, fiduciary and commission-free financial advisers, and financial planners ranked in the the top 5 percent in the country based on Zoe’s proprietary quantitative assessment test and qualitative test which assesses their knowledge and process.

The company offers a matching algorithm to pair consumers with financial advisers who share their financial objectives. Zoe’s Client Dashboard, which launched this week, enables consumers to monitor their financial standings and schedule virtual appointments with experts.

Garcia-Amaya was working at when he noticed that financial advisers were leaving the big firms to start their own businesses. Even though these independent advisers had websites and other promotional materials, it was still difficult for consumers to know who to hire.

鈥淐lients want to work with advisers who are aligned with their interests and personal situations,鈥� Garcia-Amaya, CEO, told 附近上门 News. 鈥淲e have curated the best advisers and connected them to consumers who are looking for someone to help them know if they have enough saved for their kids to go to college, for their estate planning, and for their retirement.鈥�

Joining SoftBank in the Series A is a group of new investors, including , , and . Existing investors in the round include , , and . Adding in Zoe鈥檚 $6.3 million in previous seed funding gives the company a total of $16.3 million, according to Garcia-Amaya.

“Zoe Financial is disrupting the financial advisory market through the implementation of technology, data and sector expertise,” SB Opportunity Fund Managing Partner said in a written statement. 鈥淭he SB Opportunity Fund is excited to partner with Zoe as it fuels the growth of independent advisory firms providing best-in-class, personalized advisory capabilities to a larger audience 鈥� including individuals who have been historically underserved by the market.”

Of working with SoftBank, Garcia-Amaya said it is good to have them in his corner, and they bonded over a shared goal of where the product was going.

With this investment, he plans to accelerate Zoe鈥檚 product roadmap, which includes hiring engineers and product developers.

鈥淭he best metrics we have seen on the consumer side is that there are more than $1.5 billion of aggregate savings, basically qualified leads, that are looking to hire financial advisers through a platform like us, and that has led to us growing in double digits month over month,鈥� Garcia-Amaya said. 鈥淥n the adviser side, we now have over $410 billion of managed assets among 2,600 advisers.鈥�

Inset screenshot courtesy of Zoe Financial.
Illustration: