SoFi Acquires AI Startup Composer to Enhance Trading Tools for Retail Investors

Financial company SoFi Technologies announced on Tuesday that it has acquired AI startup Composer, which helps retail investors create and automate complex trading strategies.

While commission-free trading has significantly simplified stock buying and selling, professional algorithmic and systematic investing tools have largely remained in the hands of hedge funds and institutional players. SoFi believes that artificial intelligence will lower this barrier and give retail investors the opportunity to create and test complex investment strategies without programming knowledge.

According to SoFi's Chief Executive Officer Anthony Noto, users will be able to describe investment ideas in plain text, after which the system will handle strategy creation, testing, and automation.

According to the company, following the acquisition of Composer, users will also gain access to thousands of community-created trading strategies and the ability to execute them automatically from a single platform. Financial details of the deal have not been disclosed.

SoFi's membership count grew by 35% in the first quarter of the current year and reached a record 14.7 million, while adjusted revenue increased by 41% and surpassed $1.1 billion.

Competition in the retail investor services sector has intensified significantly in recent years. Last month, Robinhood Markets also announced that it will offer users the ability to trade stocks using AI agents.