Dive Brief:

• JPMorgan Chase plans to purchase San Francisco-based OpenInvest for an undisclosed sum, the bank announced Tuesday, making the company the third fintech the bank has targeted for acquisition in the past year.

• OpenInvest, which helps financial professionals customize and report on values-based investments, will retain its own brand and be integrated into JPMorgan Chase's private bank and wealth management client offerings, the companies said. 

• The latest tie-up follows a busy year of deal activity for the New York City-based bank, which is eyeing strategic growth opportunities in the U.S., as well as the U.K. and Brazil.

Dive Insight:

JPMorgan Chase’s growth strategy falls in line with a statement CEO Jamie Dimon made at the bank’s 2020 annual investor meeting that it would be "much more aggressive with acquisitions across the board."

OpenInvest was founded in 2015 and has been backed by capital from Andreessen Horowitz, Y Combinator, QED and others.

"Clients are increasingly focused on understanding the environmental, social, and governance [ESG] impact of their portfolios and using that information to make investment decisions that better align with their goals," Mary Callahan Erdoes, CEO of the JPMorgan Chase’s asset and wealth management division, said in a statement. 

JPMorgan said it plans to leverage OpenInvest's ESG capabilities with that of 55ip, a fintech it purchased in December. Boston-based 55ip helps financial advisers automatically create tax-efficient portfolios. 

JPMorgan has also turned its attention to the U.K., a market where it plans to launch a digital bank. The bank this month agreed to buy British digital wealth management platform Nutmeg for a reported £700 million ($972.8 million).

JPMorgan’s planned acquisition of the robo-adviser, which has $4.9 billion in assets under management, is meant to complement the Wall Street giant's planned rollout, in the "coming months" of a digital bank in the U.K.

The Brazilian market is also on the bank’s radar. While not a full purchase, JPMorgan Chase announced Monday it plans to take a 40% ownership stake in the Brazilian digital bank C6. Financial terms of the transaction were not disclosed.

C6, which launched in 2019, has more than 7 million customers on its digital platform, according to a press release. The digital bank offers multicurrency checking and savings accounts, debit and credit cards, travel and loyalty programs, investment and lending products for individuals, as well as banking and payments products for small businesses.

"We’re excited to be partnering with one of Brazil’s fastest growing digital banks," Sanoke Viswanathan, CEO of international consumer for JPMorgan Chase, said in a statement. "We’ve admired C6 Bank, its management team and their strategy for some time. With an impressive platform and product suite, they are well-positioned to sustain their growth trajectory and build a strong franchise. We look forward to supporting C6 Bank in its aspiration to be a long-term winner in the Brazilian banking market."