Portfolio Spotlight: EarlyBird

Investing in the next generation at the earliest stages

At Fiat Ventures, we’re always drawn to founders who challenge financial conventions. 

EarlyBird reimagined the very starting line of wealth-building. From their earliest days, they asked a simple but powerful question: What if a child’s first gift could be an investment in their future?

This month, we’re thrilled to celebrate EarlyBird’s acquisition by Acorns, a milestone that signifies a shared commitment to nurturing financial literacy and wellness from the earliest stages of life. EarlyBird's co-founders, Jordan Wexler and Caleb Frankel, have joined Acorns to further develop family-focused financial tools, ensuring that the legacy of EarlyBird's innovative approach continues to flourish within a broader ecosystem.

What’s EarlyBird?

EarlyBird is a gifting and custodial investment platform that lets parents, relatives, and friends invest in a child’s financial future with just a few taps. It’s part FinTech, part family love letter. Alongside every contribution, givers can leave heartfelt video messages, preserving not just capital, but memories.

Behind that simple user experience is a complex stack of custodial compliance, KYC, fractional share execution, and personalized investment portfolios delivered through one of the most beautiful and emotionally resonant apps in consumer finance.

The Rise of Younger Money

If the past decade was about democratizing finance, the next will be about de-aging it. Financial brands used to meet people in their 30s and 40s via mortgages, credit scores, retirement plans. EarlyBird flipped that logic: what if a child’s first financial interaction was a moment of joy, not jargon?

By turning investment into a shared family ritual, EarlyBird created a wedge into multi-generational finance. In doing so, they proved a deeper thesis: financial identity starts earlier than we think, and today’s parents are more proactive and values-aligned than any generation before them. 

This shift aligns with the ongoing Great Wealth Transfer, where an estimated $84 trillion is expected to pass from baby boomers to younger generations by 2045. Platforms like EarlyBird are poised to play a pivotal role in guiding this wealth into meaningful, long-term investments for the next generation.

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We met EarlyBird when they were just getting the early iterations of the product off the ground, and led a lot of their early growth and acquisition strategies at our market leading consultancy, Fiat Growth. Since those early days, the team has gone on to build an easy to use product, inspired a devoted community, and navigated a highly regulated category with grit and grace.

We’re proud to have supported them from their early days and even prouder to see that mission continue at scale inside Acorns.

To the EarlyBird team: congratulations on a journey well flown. And to the next generation of financial builders: keep going. The future is younger than you think.