YCombinator recent's demo day featured Vest Financial, an investment advisor that provides options-centric products. Now only a few months later, the startup announced that it has sold a majority stake to CBOE Holdings, a holding company for Chicago Board Options Exchange. The Vest acquisition allows for enhanced integration of CBOE's proprietary products into Vest's platform, which substantially reduces complexities of options trading with targeted protection, enhanced returns, and a level of predictability unattainable with most other investments. This seems to be the clear lifecycle of "fintech" - teams that came out of institutions to build better institution grade tech, just smarter, faster and intended to bring on more clients than before.
"This alliance provides an even stronger partner for our customers," said Karan Sood, CEO and Co-Founder of Vest. "CBOE is globally recognized as a leading exchange for derivative products and has a rich history of product innovation, making them the ideal strategic partner for us going forward. Joining forces with CBOE will enable Vest to offer the broadest portfolio of industry-leading, innovative options-based investment solutions to an even wider range of customers."