Guideline - About the company
Guideline is an acquired company based in Burlingame (United States), founded in 2015 by Mike Nelson, Jeremy Caballero and Kevin Busque. It operates as a Provider of retirement plans and related administrative and investment services. Guideline has raised $344M in funding from investors like General Atlantic, Felicis Ventures and Tiger Global Management. The company has 11 active competitors, including 4 funded and 2 that have exited. Its top competitors include companies like Human Interest, Financial Engines and ForUsAll.
Company Details
Provider of retirement plans and related administrative and investment services. The guideline is an automated investment technology provider to SMEs that makes recommendations and adjustments on an ongoing basis to optimize employees' retirement accounts. The automated investment technology incorporates an individual’s entire financial ecosystem to make ongoing recommendations and adjustments.
- Website
- www.guideline.com/
- Social
- Registered Address
- San Mateo, California
Key Metrics
Founded Year
2015
Location
Burlingame, United States
Stage
Acquired
Total Funding
$344M in 6 rounds
Latest Funding Round
Investors
Ranked
1st among 11 active competitors
Employee Count
175 as on Mar 31, 2026
Investment & Acquisitions
Similar Companies
Exit Details
Acquired by Gusto (Aug 27, 2025)
Legal entities associated with Guideline
Guideline is associated with 2 legal entities given below:
Legal Entity Name | Date of Incorporation | Revenue | Latest Employee Count | Documents |
|---|---|---|---|---|
GUIDELINE TECHNOLOGIES, INC. CIN: 474474775 , United States, Active | Dec 31, 1999 | - | 398 (As on Dec 31, 2024) | - |
Guideline, Inc CIN: 5717620 , United States, Active | - | 416 (As on Dec 31, 2022) | - |
Guideline's acquisition details
Guideline got acquired by Gusto on Aug 27, 2025.
Click here to take a look at Guideline's acquisition in detail
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Guideline's funding and investors
Guideline has raised a total funding of $344M over 6 rounds. Its first funding round was on Aug 24, 2015. Its latest funding round was a Series E round on Jun 16, 2021 for $*****. 5 investors participated in its latest round. Guideline has 26 institutional investors and 1 angel investor.
Here is the list of recent funding rounds of Guideline:
Filter this list
Filter this listDate of Funding | Funding Amount | Round Name | Post-Money Valuation | Revenue Multiple | Lead Investors | Other Investors |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Jun 16, 2021 | 4724297 | Series E | 6684943 | 4691626 | 4460128 | 5477691 |
Jul 29, 2020 | 9584915 | Series D | 1705370 | 6301125 | 6894124 | |
Dec 13, 2018 | 1588041 | Series C | 6971885 | 7945244 |
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Guideline's founders and board of directors
Founder? Claim ProfileThe founders of Guideline are Mike Nelson, Jeremy Caballero and Kevin Busque. Kevin Busque is the CEO of Guideline.
Here are the details of Guideline's key team members:
- Mike Nelson: Co-Founder & CTO of Guideline. They are also an angel investor in 1 startup.
- Jeremy Caballero: Co-founder, Chief Product Officer of Guideline.
- Kevin Busque: Co-Founder & CEO of Guideline.
View details of Guideline's Founder profiles and Board Members
Guideline's employee count trend
Guideline has 175 employees as of Mar 26. Here is Guideline's employee count trend over the years:
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Guideline's Competitors and alternates
Top competitors of Guideline include Human Interest, Financial Engines and ForUsAll. Here is the list of Top 10 competitors of Guideline, ranked by Tracxn score:
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Rank | Company Details | Short Description | Total Funding | Investors | Tracxn Score |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
1st |  Guideline 2015, Burlingame (United States), Acquired | Provider of retirement plans and related administrative and investment services | $344M | 77/100 | |
2nd |  Human Interest 2015, San Francisco (United States), Series E | Employer-enabled retirement planning | $789M | 75/100 | |
3rd | _1591599631332.png?devicePixelRatio=2&height=30&width=30){kind=logo} Financial Engines 1996, Sunnyvale (United States), Acquired | Employer-enabled financial planning platform | $85M | 52/100 | |
4th | ForUsAll 2013, San Francisco (United States), Series B | Modern 401(k) plans and crypto solutions for startups and businesses | $35.2M | 50/100 | |
5th | SaveDay 2015, Fremont (United States), Seed | 401k retirement plans for small to mid-sized businesses | $100K | 35/100 | |
6th |  intellicents 1974, Albert Lea (United States), Early Stage | Provider of financial planning, retirement plan, insurance, and business consulting | $3.18M | - | 34/100 |
7th | OctaveWealth 2012, San Francisco (United States), Seed | Robo advisory platform for employer-enabled retirement planning | - | 25/100 | |
8th | WorkPlay401(k) 2015, St. Louis (United States), Unfunded | Streamlining 401(k) engagement with financial planning and wellness solutions | - | - | 24/100 |
9th | 401harmony 2011, Houston (United States), Deadpooled | Retirement planning services for individuals with 401k & IRA Plan. | - | - | 21/100 |
10th |  Kepler Savings 2021, Marysville (United States), Deadpooled | Online workplace retirement savings platform for employers | - | 21/100 |
Get insights and benchmarks for competitors of 2M+ companies! Sign up today!Looking for more details on Guideline's competitors? Click here to see the top ones
Guideline's Investments and acquisitions
Guideline has a total of 1 investment in DataBanq. Guideline has not made any acquisitions as of now.Reports related to Guideline
Here is the latest report on Guideline's sector:
News related to Guideline
Filter this listMedia has covered Guideline for a total of 5 events in the last 1 year, 1 of them has been about partnerships.
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Vestwell Acquires Accrue 401k, Adding 30,000 Plans and 350,000 SaversPLANADVISER•Dec 09, 2025•Guideline, 401GO, Vestwell,
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Gusto Acquires Guideline to Help Small Businesses Easily Implement 401(k) Retirement Plansstartuplog.com•Oct 02, 2025•Guideline, Gusto
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Gusto acquires Guideline to expand HR and payroll platformTechStartups.com•Aug 27, 2025•Guideline, Gusto, 🇦🇶ANTARCTICA Foundation
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Guideline Announces New Innovation in its Data Product for Capital MarketsMarTech Series•Aug 06, 2025•Guideline
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Retirement Platform Guideline Grows Alongside Customers, Launches Mobile App and Enterprise TierGlobeNewswire•Jul 13, 2023•Guideline
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Guideline Raises $200M in Funding Led by General Atlantic to Fuel Growth of Comprehensive Retirement Plan SolutionsGeneral Atlantic•Jun 16, 2021•Guideline, Greyhound Capital, General Atlantic, Felicis Ventures and 3 others
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U.S. Guideline raises $35 mln in venture capital funding led by Tiger GlobalInvestsize•Dec 13, 2018•Guideline
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Guideline raises $15 million led by Felicis to make 401(k)s more widely availablemmotimes.com•Aug 07, 2017•Guideline, Felicis Ventures, Aydin Senkut
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