Baltimore’s Facet Wealth wins NerdWallet award for best online financial planning service

Facet Wealth started 2019 with 32 employees. A year later, by January 2020, the tech-enabled personal financial planning company’s team had grown to 110 employees. It’s a team that stretches to 26 states, said CEO Anders Jones, who, along with his cofounders, decided to locate the company in Baltimore after building other ventures in Silicon Valley.

The company initially made a splash with a $33 million funding round in 2018. That’s a big raise for Baltimore, so it got plenty of local attention (including the #1 spot on our RealLIST Startups 2019). The growth that has followed shows how the company continues to make a local impact alongside national growth.

Baltimore remains the headquarters and houses the core business functions of the company and about 40 employees. That includes the engineering team, which CTO Paul Martin has led since joining toward the middle of last year following experience at Columbia companies including Sequoia Software and workspace.com. Jones expects that team will grow by about 10 to 20 people in 2020, as the company adds more overall.

“We continue to be really impressed with the talent that’s available in Baltimore,” Jones said.

As the company grew, it also added office space in Harbor East’s Bagby Building. With a distributed team of mostly financial planners and client success managers, the company also has operations in Tampa and Phoenix.

It is also gaining business, according to its leadership, posting about 25% month-over-month growth in the last six months. That included financial planning clients it picked up from San Francisco-based Grove after that company was acquired. Services are delivered by a human advisor, with a tech platform providing assistance. It looks to work with clients who have a net worth of about $100,000 to $1 million. This group, known as the “mass affluent,” may seek financial planning services, but often don’t get as much attention from the bigger firms, Jones has said.

National recognition has also followed for the company: It was recently awarded Best Online Financial Planning Service for 2020 by NerdWallet.

“They’re the gold standard when it comes to evaluate financial products and services and so it’s been great to have that recognition,” Jones told us from San Francisco on Wednesday, where he was scheduled to accept the award at a ceremony that night.

*brushes shoulders off* We’re beyond proud to be named the overall @nerdwallet 2020 “Best Online Financial Planning Service.” Read the full announcement:https://t.co/pgRbd0hOQ1 pic.twitter.com/MJOUfUt1wg

— Facet (@join_facet) January 16, 2020

Alongside the reviews, Jones has also emerged nationally as a voice for Baltimore’s startup community, speaking to Inc. and the Maryland Department of Commerce about the virtues of starting a business in Baltimore. As a founder who relocated from the area that’s known as the center of tech world, he offers a unique story. The CEO said it’s important to him to encourage others to start or relocate companies in Baltimore.

“As a founder I personally remain very committed to touting the benefits of Baltimore around the country,” Jones said.