Betterment

Betterment is an online investment company based in New York City, registered with the Securities and Exchange Commission and a member of the Financial Industry Regulatory Authority (FINRA). Also known as Betterment.com, Betterment is a registered investment advisor (RIA) and a broker-dealer.
The company is an automated, goal-based investing service. Betterment invests in a portfolio of passive index-tracking equity and fixed income exchange-traded funds (ETFs) and offers both taxable and tax-advantaged investment accounts, including traditional and Roth individual retirement accounts (IRAs). 
Betterment was founded in 2008 in New York City by Jon Stein, a Columbia Business School MBA graduate, and Eli Broverman, a lawyer out of NYU School of Law. Stein and his roommate Sean Owen, a Google software engineer, started building the first online platform for Betterment in 2008 using a Java application and MySQL database on Apache Tomcat servers with an Adobe Flash- and Flex-based front-end design. Initial prototype designs were provided by Stein's then-girlfriend, Polina Khentov. Facing regulation associated with starting a financial company, Stein began negotiations to bring on Eli Broverman, then a securities lawyer he met over regular poker games, as a co-founder in 2008. From 2008 to 2010, the founding team continued to develop the platform for launch. Betterment gained approval from FINRA for membership. In 2009, Anthony Schrauth, a former colleague of Stein's joined Betterment as chief product officer, and Owen was replaced by Kiran Keshav of Columbia University's Center for Computational Biology. O'Sullivan left his role as president in 2010.
Betterment's current business model includes three areas of business: retail investment, a platform for advisors, and a 401(k) for mid-market business. In July 2017, Betterment announced its assets under management (AUM) had surpassed $10 billion.