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Web Startup Aims to Protect Your Bottom Line

SigFig audits investment portfolios to uncover extra charges.

By Marty Jerome

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SigFig.com
Based in San Francisco
Employees: 40
Funding from DCM and angel investors: $10 million
Assets synced to the site: $30 billion
Potential savings identified for investors: $300 million

What it is
Most financial advice is a witch's brew of hidden fees and other costly "gotchas" that can turn investment gains into losses. SigFig is a free site that exposes some of this. In less than 60 seconds, it runs all your investments--401(k)s, IRAs, trading and managed accounts, mutual funds--through its ever-evolving algorithms to show you where you're getting burned from fees and overcharges. The site then makes recommendations for changing underperforming assets. And it does all this with bank-level security. In a little over a year, the company has synced with some $30 billion in customer assets.

How it started
Founders Mike Sha and Parker Conrad began day trading out of their Harvard dorm room. They went on to found education site Wikinvest. Seeing the need for better tracking tools, they built Wikinvest Portfolio Tracker, which lets investors follow assets across brokerages.

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