OpenAI has acquired Roi, an AI-powered personal finance application, and onboarded its Chief Executive and co-founder, Sujith Vishwajith. The acquisition represents the latest instance of an "acqui-hire" for OpenAI, a trend focusing on integrating key talent rather than entire company structures. Following the deal, Roi is scheduled to wind down its operations and cease services to customers on October 15.
Vishwajith announced the acquisition on Friday, with sources familiar with the matter indicating he is the sole member of Roi’s four-person staff to join OpenAI. The terms of the acquisition were not disclosed. This move follows other recent OpenAI acqui-hires this year, including Context.ai, Crossing Minds, and Alex, signaling a strategic emphasis on securing specialized expertise in AI development.
While the specific role Vishwajith will assume and the integration of Roi's technology into OpenAI's infrastructure remain unconfirmed, the acquisition aligns with OpenAI's stated commitment to personalization and life management capabilities within its next generation of AI products. Roi specialized in aggregating diverse financial data—including stocks, crypto, DeFi, real estate, and NFTs—into a single platform offering tracking, insights, and trading assistance through an AI companion.
New York-based Roi, founded in 2022, had secured $3.6 million in early-stage funding from investors such as Balaji Srinivasan, Spark Capital, Gradient Ventures, and Spacecadet Ventures, according to PitchBook data. Vishwajith stated on X, "We started Roi 3 years ago to make investing accessible to everyone by building the most personalized financial experience. Along the way we realized personalization isn’t just the future of finance. It’s the future of software." The platform distinguished itself by offering a customizable AI companion that adapted its responses based on user-provided information, such as profession and desired communication style.
This strategic talent acquisition complements OpenAI's ongoing efforts to expand its consumer applications portfolio, currently led by former Instacart CEO Fidji Simo. Existing initiatives include Pulse for personalized news, the Sora app for AI-generated video content, and Instant Checkout for direct purchases within ChatGPT. The integration of Roi's talent and focus on adaptive personalization is expected to enhance these end-user applications, contributing to OpenAI’s objective of generating meaningful revenue from consumer products to support its substantial investments in data centers and infrastructure.
