Acorns is raising $565 million to Robinhood-ize itself; lately, that includes self-direction options and …

Combining a SPAC IPO raise of $400 million and a $165-million hedge fund placement, the Irvine, Calif.-based robo-advisor needs a reboot after nearly a decade grew AUM to only anout $5 billionAcorns is raising $565 million to effect an urgent revamp that looks like a mash up of Robinhood, SoFi and a roll-up.The Irvine, Calif., robo-advisor for micro-accounts will get $400 million through an initial public offering by merger with a special purpose acquisition company (SPAC). The deal values Acorns at $2.2 billion.   Will Trout: Acorns needs to evolve its business model.  A private placement will fund the other $165 million. Combined with previous raises totaling $202 million since its 2012 founding, it will have $767 million to fuel its ambitions.Acorns only realized $71 million in 2020 revenue but projects $126 million this year and $309 million in 2023, The Wall Street Journal reports.  The company also forecast that its user base would surpass 8 million subscribers by 2023 — up from about 4 million today. See: Mindful of ‘Snapchat’ dynamic, BlackRock takes big Acorns stake after the micro-robo wins 2.2 million investors in 12 monthsWhen NBCUniversal made its $105 million investment in acorns in 2019, the valuation was at $860 million.Rounding upAcorns launched as a specialist in…
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