Chicago fintech startup M1 Finance has been on a fundraising tear over the last year, with its latest round valuing the company at over $1 billion.
M1 announced Wednesday that it has raised $150 million at a $1.45 billion valuation, creating yet another "unicorn" tech firm in Chicago as the city continues to see record amounts of venture capital this year.
M1's Series E round was led by SoftBank via its Vision Fund 2, along with backing from its existing investors. The startup has now raised $320 million to date, $300 million of which has come within the last 12 months.
Founded in 2015 by CEO Brian Barnes, M1 has built a no-fee investing app that offers users an automated brokerage, portfolio lines of credit and digital banking. The startup has grown fast, as it now manages more than $4.5 billion in assets, up $1 billion from March when it had $3.5 billion under management.
M1 now has 265 employees, and it plans to be at 300 by the end of the year and 500 by the end of 2022.
Chicago's run of unicorn startups in 2021 is unprecedented. At least 11 tech companies in Chicago have confirmed or are reported to have reached the billion-dollar valuation this year, including ShipBob, Amount, Enfusion, ActiveCampaign, Relativity, G2, Project44, Cameo, Bringg and Clearcover. In the first half of this year, Chicago tech companies have raised $3.8 billion in venture funding, which is $1 billion more than what the city's startups raised in all of 2020.
Other M1 investors include Coatue, Left Lane Capital, Clocktower Technology Ventures, Jump Capital and Chicago Ventures.
