Drake, Ryan Reynolds And Other Celebs Join WealthSimple's $610M Funding Round At $4B Valuation: Bloomberg

Canada’s Power Corporation Of Canada’s PWCDF online brokerage, Wealthsimple, has raised $610 million (C$750 million) at a $4 billion valuation, over three times its October valuation, Bloomberg reports.
Existing investors Meritech Capital Partners and Greylock Partners led the funding round, including Canadian celebrities like rapper Drake, actors Ryan Reynolds and Michael J. Fox, and basketball player Kelly Olynyk.
Wealthsimple was capitalizing on the surging tech valuations and online trading that have benefitted the likes of Robinhood Markets Inc.
Wealthsimple offers commission-free stock trading, automated investing, cryptocurrency trading, and tax services.
The company was building out cash, checking, insurance, and mortgage products to become a primary financial institution for users, CEO Michael Kitchen said last year.
Wealthsimple procured C$114 million at a C$1.5 billion post-money valuation in October.
The latest funding round consisted of a C$250 million primary offering by Wealthsimple and a C$500 million secondary offering from Power Corp and its subsidiaries.
Power Corp will own a 43% stake in Wealthsimple after the financing, including the portions owned by Power-controlled IGM Financial Inc IGIFF and Great-West Lifeco Inc GWLIF.
Price action: PWCDF shares are trading higher by 2.1% at $29.75 on the last check Monday.