Jesse Proudman. (Strix Leviathan Photo)

Investment advisor Betterment has agreed to acquire Makara, a Seattle startup that helps people invest in cryptocurrency.

“Makara is to crypto today what we are to traditional investing, since pioneering robo-investing a decade ago,” Betterment CEO Sarah Levy said in a statement.

Both companies offer robo-investing software, which automate the investing process digitally.

Betterment describes itself as the largest independent digital investment advisor with $32 billion in assets under management and nearly 700,000 clients.

Makara aims to make it more simple to invest in crypto by creating “thematic baskets” that can meet various goals and interests such as the largest coins or emerging trends.

Makara spun out of Strix Leviathan, a cryptocurrency trading and management service for enterprises and institutions. It launched in May 2021.

Strix was founded in 2018 by Jesse Proudman, who previously sold Blue Box to IBM, along with former IBM employee Sadie Raney and former PitchBook analyst Nico Cordeiro. Bend, Ore.-based entrepreneur Matt Kern is co-founder and CTO of Makara.

Proudman said he experienced the “hardest year spent in my 25-year entrepreneurial career” while building Makara in its initial stages. After raising about $3 million in seed funding, the company began raising its Series A round last summer with the tagline, “Building Betterment for Crypto.”

Makara employs 20 people and will continue operating as an independent brand. The company raised $6.6 million in total from backers including Liquid 2 Ventures, Founders’ Co-Op, Signum Capital, Paul Stahura, Trilogy Equity, Ascend Venture Capital, and Gaingels / Flight.vc.

Strix Leviathan will also continue operating under its current structure with eight employees.

Betterment raised $160 million in September that valued the New York City startup at nearly $1.3 billion.

Blockchain and crypto startups saw funding grow 713% year-over-year in 2021 to $25.2 billion, CB Insights reported. The price of Bitcoin and other crypto coins took a major hit in January but have rebounded this month.

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