Vanilla Raises $11.6M in Series A Funding

Vanilla, a Los Angeles, CA-based estate planning platform provider, raised $11.6m in Series A funding.

The round was led by Venrock with participation from F. William McNabb III, the former CEO and Chairman of Vanguard group, who joined Vanilla’s Board of Directors, along with Venrock’s Nick Beim. Participants in the Series A round include Jason Wenk, Founder and CEO of Altruist, Michael Jordan, the NBA legend, businessman, and Principal Owner of the Charlotte Hornets NBA franchise, and his business partner, Curtis Polk. Vanilla’s Board also includes Robert Thornton, President of First Republic Investment Management and President of First Republic Private Wealth Management.

Founded by financial advisor and wealth management entrepreneur Steve Lockshin, Vanilla provides a digital estate planning solution that proactively monitors client estate planning, visualizes existing planning, and facilitates document creation.

Vanilla was founded in 2019 and released its initial offering in November 2020. Originally focused on the generation of core estate planning documents, the product offering quickly expanded to include the ability to review existing estate planning documents and function as a platform to proactively manage estate planning.

Addepar, a wealth management platform specializing in data aggregation, analytics, and reporting for the modern advisor, and Orion Advisor Solutions, a provider of the tech-enabled fiduciary process, partnered with Vanilla to integrate and provide the Vanilla suite of solutions to users of their software. They join partners including Mariner Wealth Advisors, Carson Group, and AdvicePeriod as well as 435 other RIAs, each of which has deployed Vanilla across their organizations.

FinSMEs

30/08/2021