OpenAI has purchased Roi, an AI-driven personal finance app, with only the startup’s CEO joining the company. The move continues OpenAI’s trend of acqui-hires throughout the year.
Single-Employee Acquisition
Roi’s CEO and co-founder, Sujith Vishwajith, announced the acquisition on Friday. According to a source cited by TechCrunch, he is the only member of the four-person Roi team joining OpenAI.
The terms of the deal were not disclosed, and Roi will shut down its operations on October 15.
OpenAI did not immediately respond to Benzinga’s request for comment.
Financial Background
Roi is a New York-based startup founded in 2022 that raised $3.6 million from investors such as Balaji Srinivasan, Spark Capital, and Gradient Ventures, according to PitchBook.
See Also: OpenAI’s Sam Altman Turns To Asia, Middle East For Funds Amid Multitrillion-Dollar Push To Build Next-Gen Data Centers
The app helped users track and manage their financial assets across stocks, crypto, decentralized finance (DeFi), real estate, and non-fungible tokens (NFTs).
“We started Roi 3 years ago to make investing accessible to everyone by building the most personalized financial experience,” Vishwajith wrote on X. “Along the way we realized personalization isn’t just the future of finance. It’s the future of software.”
Consumer Strategy
The acquisition comes after OpenAI’s purchase of Context.ai, Crossing Minds, and Alex earlier this year. OpenAI’s consumer applications team, led by former Instacart (NASDAQ:CART) CEO Fidji Simo, has launched products such as Pulse for personalized news and Instant Checkout for in-app purchases.
OpenAI completed a $6.5 billion acquisition of Jony Ive’s AI hardware startup in July.
Revenue Focus
Vishwajith previously worked at Airbnb (NASDAQ:ABNB), where a 25-line code change he implemented generated over $10 million in additional revenue.
Driving consumer revenue is especially important as OpenAI continues to spend billions on infrastructure. Spending is projected to rise to $400 billion by 2029.
Read Next:
Former Cisco CEO John Chambers Warns AI Market Surge Mirrors Dot-Com Bubble, Predicts Faster Job Displacement, Market Volatility
Photo courtesy: Svet foto / Shutterstock.com
Disclaimer: This content was partially produced with the help of AI tools and was reviewed and published by Benzinga editors.
ABNBAirbnb Inc$120.20-1.06%OverviewCARTMaplebear Inc$38.22-2.75%Market News and Data brought to you by Benzinga APIs
