About Guideline
Guideline is a Technology company based in Burlingame (United States) founded in 1969 by Jeremy Caballero and Kevin Busque, and was acquired by Gusto in August 2025. It operates as an automated 401(k) platform for SMEs retirement optimization is provided. Guideline has raised $344 million across 6 funding rounds from investors including Gusto, General Atlantic and Lerer Hippeau. The company has 416 employees. Its chief executive is Kevin Busque. Its website guideline.com draws about 587 thousand monthly visits. Guideline offers products and services including 401(k) Plan, SEP IRA, Traditional IRA, and Roth IRA. Its focus areas include FinTech, Investment Tech, Wealth Management Platforms and Robo Advisors. Its legal entity is Guideline, Inc. Its competitors include Human Interest, Financial Engines, ForUsAll, OctaveWealth and MoneyIntel and 2 more; 3 of its 7 listed competitors have raised funding.
Company details
Guideline was founded in 1969 and is headquartered in Burlingame, United States. Investment technology is delivered to small and medium-sized enterprises through an automated 401(k) platform. Employee retirement accounts are optimized via ongoing recommendations and adjustments. The platform integrates each individuals full financial ecosystem to inform these processes in the fintech sector.
Products & Services of Guideline
Guideline offers a comprehensive portfolio of products and services, including 401(k) Plan, SEP IRA, Traditional IRA, and Roth IRA.
Customizable retirement plans for businesses with low fees.
Accounts for self-employed individuals to save for retirement.
Flexible accounts for individual investors and rollovers.
Tax-advantaged accounts for personal retirement savings.
Funding Insights of Guideline
Guideline has successfully raised a total of $344M across 6 strategic funding rounds. The most recent funding activity was a Series E round of $200 million completed in June 2021. This substantial capital infusion reflects strong investor confidence in the company's business model, growth potential, and market opportunities. The funding enables strategic expansion, product development, market penetration, and operational scaling to drive long-term value creation and competitive advantage.
- Total Funding $344M
- Total Rounds 6
- Last Round Series E — $200M
- First Round $2M
(Aug 2015)
- Investors Count 16
All 6 funding rounds of Guideline with amounts and investors; the two latest post-money valuations are shown, the rest are part of the premium plan.
| Date | Amount | Transaction Name | Valuation | Lead Investors | Investors |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Jun 2021 | $200M | Series E | – | General Atlantic | |
| Jul 2020 | $85M | Series D | – | Greyhound Capital, Generation Investment Management | |
| Dec 2018 | $35M | Series C | – | Tiger Global Management | |
| Aug 2017 | $15M | Series B | – | Felicis Ventures | |
| Jul 2016 | $7M | Series A | – | – | |
| Aug 2015 | $2M | Seed | – | – |
17 investors in total: 16 institutional and 1 angel.
Investors in Guideline
Guideline has secured backing from 17 investors, including venture fund, angel, and institutional investors. Prominent investors backing the company include Gusto, General Atlantic and Lerer Hippeau.
| Investor | Description | Founded Year | Domain | Location |
|---|---|---|---|---|
Private equity fund focused on global markets | 1980 | generalatlantic.com | New York, United States | |
Private equity firm focused on sustainable investments | – | generationim.com | London, United Kingdom | |
Venture capital fund focused on making growth equity investments across tech startups | – | greyhoundcapital.com | London, United Kingdom | |
Investments in technology startups are made by Felicis Ventures. | – | felicis.com | Menlo Park, United States | |
Venture capital funding is provided to firms across diverse sectors. | – | propel.vc | San Francisco, United States | |
Greyhound Capital is focused on investment management in emerging Asia. | – | greyhoundcapital.net | Bangkok, Thailand | |
USA focused VC firm investing in seed and early stage startups | 2010 | lererhippeau.com | New York, United States | |
Early-stage venture capital funding is provided by Xfund. | – | xfund.com | Cambridge, United States | |
Investing in early-stage tech companies and ideas. | – | boxgroup.com | - | |
Venture and private equity investments are managed with global diversification. | – | tigerglobal.com | New York, United States |
Investor details for Guideline
The complete investor list, round-by-round participation and investor portfolios require an active premium plan.
- Complete investor list
- Round participation
- Investor portfolios
- Co-investor network
Verified entity values are shown only after access is granted.
People of Guideline
42 people are tracked at Guideline (14 in leadership, 28 in team); the tracked headcount is 416.
| Name | Role | Group |
|---|---|---|
Jeremy Caballero | Co-Founder & Chief Product Officer | Leadership |
Kevin Busque | Co-Founder & CEO | Leadership |
Kevin Qian | Head of FP&A | Leadership |
Tatiana Petelina | Chief Of Staff | Leadership |
Jeff Rosenberger | COO | Leadership |
Steven Wu | CFO & Head, Business Development | Leadership |
Emily Brannon | Chief Of Staff To The Chief Product Officer | Leadership |
Kimberly Canigiula | Head Of Equity Administration | Leadership |
Brenda Sieben | 5500 Filings Director | Leadership |
Qian Liu | COO | Leadership |
Chase Heiner | Senior Partner Manager | Leadership |
David Padilla | Director Of Reconciliation | Leadership |
Kristina Sarcione | Senior Director Of Product | Leadership |
Liz Mastrobattisto | Chief Compliance Officer | Leadership |
Matthew Morrison | Senior Data Analyst | Team |
Angela Chao | Senior Counsel | Team |
Doris Huey | Payroll Manager | Team |
Joseph Wexler | Legal Counsel, Commercial Contracts | Team |
Nicole Gabriel-Lee | Senior People Operations Manager | Team |
Sabina H. | Senior Operations Accountant | Team |
22 more people are available in the full profile.
Complete people profiles for Guideline
Full employee and board profiles, team structure, tenure and professional contact details require an active premium plan.
- Full employee list
- Team structure
- Board tenure
- Professional contacts
Verified entity values are shown only after access is granted.
Timeline of Guideline
4 dated milestones of Guideline across 56 years, from founding to its latest funding, stage changes and deals.
- Founded Guideline is founded.
- Funding First funding round of $2.0M.
- Funding Latest funding round, Series E, of $200.0M.
- Exit Acquired by Gusto.
Competitors of Guideline
Guideline has 7 listed competitors in our database, 3 of them funded. They include Human Interest, Financial Engines, ForUsAll, OctaveWealth and MoneyIntel, among others.
| Company Name | Domain | Founded | HQ Location | Total funding | Employees | Description |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| humaninterest.com | 2015 | San Francisco, United States | $789.02M | 577 | Employer-enabled platform for retirement planning and compliance management. | |
| financialengines.com | 1996 | Sunnyvale, United States | $85M | 2,401 | Employer-enabled financial planning platform | |
| forusall.com | 2013 | San Francisco, United States | $35.22M | – | Platform for managing 401(K) accounts | |
| octavewealth.com | 2012 | San Francisco, United States | – | – | Robo advisory platform is utilized for employer-enabled retirement planning. | |
| moneyintel.com | 2012 | Cupertino, United States | – | – | 401(k) plan administration and fiduciary services are provided to businesses. | |
| keplersavings.com | 2021 | Marysville, United States | – | – | Kepler Savings is an online platform for employers to manage workplace retirement savings programs. | |
| 401harmony.com | 2011 | Houston, United States | – | – | Provides retirement planning services for individuals with 401k and IRA plans. |
Detailed competitors of Guideline
The full competitor set, operating metrics and side-by-side benchmarks require an active premium plan.
- Full competitor set
- Operating metrics
- Benchmarks
- Competitive positioning
Verified entity values are shown only after access is granted.
Web traffic of Guideline
The website of Guideline (guideline.com) receives about 586.8K visits a month and ranks #69,512 among all websites worldwide, #4,392 in Finance.
- Monthly visits586.8K
▲ 25% vs previous month
- Unique visitors196.4K
per month
- Global rank#69,512
among all websites
- Category rank#4,392
Finance · Finance
- Bounce rate23%
- Pages per visit7.0
- Average visit4 min 09 sec
- DevicesDesktop 76% · Mobile 24%
Websites whose visitors overlap most with Guideline. Affinity shows how closely the audiences match.
| Website | Domain | Audience affinity | Monthly visits | Global rank | Profile |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| humaninterest.com | 100% | 704.1K | #62,165 | View details | |
| nerdwallet.com | 89% | 22.3M | #2,677 | View details | |
| carta.com | 85% | 2M | #23,894 | View details | |
| barclaycardus.com | 81% | – | #3,121 | View details | |
| monarchmoney.com | 78% | 28.3K | #1,157,909 | View details | |
| •••••••••• | ••••••.com | ••% | •.•M | #••••• | – |
| •••••••••• | ••••••.com | ••% | •.•M | #••••• | – |
| •••••••••• | ••••••.com | ••% | •.•M | #••••• | – |
All 40 similar websites and full traffic analytics for Guideline
The complete similar-websites list, audience overlap and engagement analytics require an active premium plan.
- 40 similar websites
- Audience overlap
- Engagement analytics
- Traffic by brand
Verified entity values are shown only after access is granted.
Top companies in Investment & Financial Technology
10 companies that operate in the same segment as Guideline (Investment & Financial Technology), ranked by their profile score on The Company Check.
| Company | Description | Founded | Location | Total funding | Revenue | Employees |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Commission-free trading and investment services are provided by Robinhood. | 2013 | Menlo Park, California, United States | USD 5.58 B | USD 2.98 B | 4,841 | |
Online exchange platform for cryptocurrency | 2017 | Ta Xbiex, Malta | USD 2.02 B | – | 14,747 | |
Online social trading platform for cryptocurrency, stocks, ETFs, and CFDs | 2007 | Tel Aviv, Tel Aviv, Israel | USD 422.94 M | USD 925.73 M | 2,713 | |
Financial data and investment advisory tools are offered online. | 1984 | Chicago, Illinois, United States | USD 91 M | USD 351.25 K | 6 | |
App-based brokerage stock trading platform | 1996 | Mumbai, Maharashtra, India | USD 38.41 M | USD 548.9 M | 3,830 | |
App-based platform for spare change investment | 2012 | Irvine, California, United States | USD 587.84 M | – | 602 | |
Smart investment portfolios are offered via an online platform. | 2015 | Bengaluru, Karnataka, India | USD 121.05 M | USD 635.51 K | 231 | |
App-based automated investment and retirement planning platform | 2010 | New York, New York, United States | USD 335 M | – | 674 | |
Money Forward is engaged in providing financial technology solutions. | 2012 | Minato, Tokyo, Japan | USD 42.9 M | USD 322.51 M | 2,600 | |
Wealth management solutions are delivered for investment advisors. | 2009 | Mountain View, California, United States | USD 759.1 M | – | 1,524 |
Unlock complete access to The Company Check
Get unrestricted viewing across everything we track — from companies and brands to investors, funding rounds, acquisitions, financials, and more.
- Unlimited viewing on all profiles Companies, investors, financials, funding, acquisitions & directors
- Full access to every database India & global coverage, advanced filters and rich profile details
- Always-on access from your team account Single premium plan for everything you see on the portal
Related news about Guideline
Complete news archive for Guideline
Full article history, source details, and older brand coverage require an active premium plan.
- Full article archive
- Source and publication date
- Older coverage
- Brand-specific news history
Verified entity values are shown only after access is granted.
Frequently Asked Questions about Guideline
Guideline was founded in 1969 and raised its 1st funding round 46 years after it was founded.
Guideline is headquartered in Burlingame, United States. It is registered at Burlingame, California, United States.
Kevin Busque is the current CEO of Guideline. They have also founded this company.
Guideline is a funded company, having raised a total of $344M across 6 funding rounds to date. The company's 1st funding round was a Seed of $2M, raised on Aug 2015.
Guideline has 416 employees.
Guideline was founded in 1969 and is headquartered in Burlingame, United States. Investment technology is delivered to small and medium-sized enterprises through an automated 401(k) platform. Employee retirement accounts are optimized via ongoing recommendations and adjustments. The platform integrates each individuals full financial ecosystem to inform these processes in the fintech sector.
Guideline's top competitors include Human Interest, Financial Engines and ForUsAll.
Guideline offers 401(k) Plan, SEP IRA, Traditional IRA, and Roth IRA.
Guideline has 17 investors. Key investors include Gusto, General Atlantic, Lerer Hippeau, Generation Investment Management, and Greyhound Capital Management.
Guideline operates through Guideline, Inc..
Yes. Guideline was acquired by Gusto in August 2025.
The website of Guideline receives about 587 thousand visits a month and ranks #69,512 among all websites worldwide.