Startups
Acquisitions

Robinhood’s first acquisition? This Wharton MBA student’s media company

MarketSnacks, publishers of an email newsletter and podcast cofounded by Wharton MBA candidate Nick Martell, is now Robinhood Snacks.

The now-acquired app delivers snackable financial news. (Screenshot)

New York-based MarketSnacks, a niche media company pumping out daily updates on the financial sector, has just been acquired by stock trading app Robinhood.

The local tie to this? Cofounder Nick Martell, who started the newsletter and podcast combo in 2012 alongside Jack Kramer, is a Wharton MBA candidate. As part of the deal, the duo will relocate to Palo Alto, Calif., and the company’s products will become Robinhood Snacks, and made available through the popular trading app.

“In 2012, we cofounded MarketSnacks outside our bank jobs to make financial news more accessible and enjoyable for our generation,” said Martell and Kramer in a joint statement. “That aligns perfectly with Robinhood’s mission, and together we can inform millions of people every day. We’re honored to join forces with Robinhood and thankful for our incredible Snackers who helped get us here.”firs

In an email sent Tuesday, Robinhood declined to disclose financial terms of the acquisition or how many subscribers the newsletter had. Fortune reports that this is Robinhood’s first acquisition.

Kramer and Martell, who will join Robinhood as “managing editors of news,” told Fortune they will continue to pen the daily newsletters and host a 15-minute podcast on the day’s top stock market news.

The acquisition has another Philly-ish tie: MarketSnacks was backed by student-focused VC fund Rough Draft Ventures, a firm that connected with the startup through then-Wharton Venture Fellow Adina Davis. Martell and Davis met a few weeks after they had arrived on Wharton campus in the fall of 2017.

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