Freetrade is a UK-based

financial technology Fintech, a portmanteau of "financial technology", refers to firms using new technology to compete with traditional financial methods in the delivery of financial services. Artificial intelligence, blockchain, cloud computing, and big data are ...

company which offers a

freemium Freemium, a portmanteau of the words "free" and "premium," is a pricing strategy by which a basic product or service is provided free of charge, but money (a premium) is charged for additional features, services, or virtual (online) or physical (o ...

share dealing service. The company was founded in 2016 and launched an

iOS iOS (formerly iPhone OS) is a mobile operating system created and developed by Apple Inc. exclusively for its hardware. It is the operating system that powers many of the company's mobile devices, including the iPhone; the term also includes ...

app in October 2018, followed by an Android version in April 2019. In October 2021 the company surpassed one million registered users, with quarterly trading volumes as of March 2021 of over £1 billion. As of November 2021 Freetrade has over £1 billion of assets under administration.

History

Freetrade was founded in September 2015 by Adam Dodds and Davide Fioranelli. In 2019, it brought aboard venture capitalist

Molten Ventures Molten Ventures, formerly Draper Esprit, is a venture capital firm, investing in high growth technology companies with global ambitions, with offices in London, Cambridge and Dublin. It is listed on the London Stock Exchange and is a constituent ...

to complete a $15M Series A financing. The first CTO was André Mohammed, who in 2019 left to join

Revolut Revolut is a British financial technology company that offers banking services, but did not have a UK banking licence. Headquartered in London, it was founded in 2015 by Nikolay Storonsky and Vlad Yatsenko. It offers accounts featuring currency ...

. Viktor Nebehaj, an early

crowdfunding Crowdfunding is the practice of funding a project or venture by raising money from a large number of people, typically via the internet. Crowdfunding is a form of crowdsourcing and alternative finance. In 2015, over was raised worldwide by crow ...

investor, joined the firm as chief marketing officer. Ian Fuller joined as VP of Engineering from

Snapchat Snapchat is an American multimedia instant messaging app and service developed by Snap Inc., originally Snapchat Inc. One of the principal features of Snapchat is that pictures and messages are usually only available for a short time before the ...

in 2018 and left in 2021. The company's $69M

Series B A venture round is a type of funding round used for venture capital financing, by which startup companies obtain investment, generally from venture capitalists and other institutional investors. The availability of venture funding is among the ...

round was announced in March 2021, led by Left Lane Capital, with participation from

L Catterton L Catterton is a U.S.-headquartered private equity firm. Since 1989, the firm has made more than 250 investments in brands across all segments of the consumer industry. L Catterton is led by its co-Chief Executive Officers, J. Michael Chu and S ...

and Molten Ventures. However, the company struggled to find new backers at a higher valuation in 2022 and had to resort to a convertible loan note supplemented by a further

crowdfunded Crowdfunding is the practice of funding a project or venture by raising money from a large number of people, typically via the internet. Crowdfunding is a form of crowdsourcing and alternative finance. In 2015, over was raised worldwide by crow ...

round and a staff reduction of around 15%. In January 2020, the company was accused of fostering a culture of fear after a ''

City A.M. ''City A.M.'' is a freesheet, free business-focused newspaper distributed in and around London, England, with an accompanying website. Its certified distribution was 85,738 copies a day in February 2020, according to statistics compiled by the A ...

'' investigation into staff claims of a toxic workplace. Co-founder Adam Dodds responded, saying it has an honest and candid culture that not everyone is comfortable with. In January 2022 the UK

Financial Conduct Authority The Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) is a financial regulation, financial regulatory body in the United Kingdom, but operates independently of the UK Government, and is financed by charging fees to members of the financial services industry. The ...

(FCA) issued a second supervisory notice ordering the company to remove "all paid for sponsored influencer advertisements and posts" across a variety of social media platforms. This notice noted the adverts were misleading "as there are no guarantees of positive returns on any investment", thus increasing the risk of vulnerable people in debt increasing their debt.

Operations

Freetrade offers a commission-free trading app on the Android and

platforms, which is open to users in the United Kingdom. Users may trade

equities In finance, stock (also capital stock) consists of all the shares by which ownership of a corporation or company is divided.Longman Business English Dictionary: "stock - ''especially AmE'' one of the shares into which ownership of a company ...

and ETFs listed in the UK and the US. For US assets, users may hold and trade fractional shares. Portfolios can be held in a tax-free ISA or SIPP (personal pension), in each case for a flat monthly fee. Freetrade launched its premium product, Freetrade Plus, in October 2020, offering an expanded list of

tradable securities Liquid tradable securities (or LTS) is a generic phrase for a wide range of financial instruments. It often differentiates financial instruments that are easily tradable (or tradeable) as opposed to those that require the permission of the company ...

and order types. The product backend is hosted on

Google Cloud Platform Google Cloud Platform (GCP), offered by Google, is a suite of cloud computing services that runs on the same infrastructure that Google uses internally for its end-user products, such as Google Search, Gmail, Google Drive, and YouTube. Alongside ...

and Freetrade operate on a

serverless computing Serverless computing is a cloud computing execution model in which the cloud provider allocates machine resources on demand, taking care of the servers on behalf of their customers. "Serverless" is a misnomer in the sense that servers are still ...

model. In 2020, Freetrade had plans to enter the wider European market, beginning with Sweden, Ireland and the Netherlands.

Reception

In an early review of the service, ''

Forbes ''Forbes'' () is an American business magazine owned by Integrated Whale Media Investments and the Forbes family. Published eight times a year, it features articles on finance, industry, investing, and marketing topics. ''Forbes'' also re ...

'' described it as "a challenger stock trading app built for the

Instagram Instagram is a photo and video sharing social networking service owned by American company Meta Platforms. The app allows users to upload media that can be edited with filters and organized by hashtags and geographical tagging. Posts can ...

age", and commended it on being the first and only challenger stockbroker in the UK, but criticized the poor financial charting, and its then lack of US securities. In a 2019 review for ''

MoneyWeek ''MoneyWeek'' is a British weekly investment magazine that covers financial and economic news and provides commentary and analysis across the UK and global markets. ''MoneyWeek'' is edited in London. It is owned by MoneyWeek Limited, which is no ...

'', David Stevenson described the available securities, which by then included both UK and US listed stocks and ETFs, as a "decent slug of the large-cap universe". And while it did not offer a full-service platform such as established competitors

Hargreaves Lansdown Hargreaves Lansdown plc is a British financial service company based in Bristol, England. It sells funds and shares and related products to retail investors in the United Kingdom. The company is listed on the London Stock Exchange and is a consti ...

AJ Bell AJ Bell is a British public limited company that provides online investment platforms and stockbroker services. It is listed on the London Stock Exchange and is a constituent of the FTSE 250 Index. History The company was formed in Manchester ...

, "for those simply looking for regular, low-cost savings, I think Freetrade is hard to beat". Stevenson described Freetrade as his favourite fintech. At ''

The Next Web TNW (The Next Web) is a website and annual series of conferences focused on new technology and start-up companies in Europe. The Next Web company was established in 2006 by co-founders Boris Veldhuijzen van Zanten and Patrick de Laive in Amsterda ...

'', Matthew Hughes credited Freetrade with "radically

hanging Hanging is the suspension of a person by a noose or ligature around the neck.Oxford English Dictionary, 2nd ed. Hanging as method of execution is unknown, as method of suicide from 1325. The ''Oxford English Dictionary'' states that hanging i ...

how I manage my money", inciting him to invest more, and increase his knowledge of the markets.

Awards

*British Bank Awards 2021 – Best Online Trading Platform *Good Money Guide 2021 – Best Commission-Free Stockbroker *British Bank Awards 2020 – Best Online Trading Platform *British Bank Awards 2019 – Best Share Trading Platform *Good Money Guide 2019 – People's Choice

References

External links

* {{Online brokerages British companies established in 2016 Financial services companies established in 2016 Financial services companies of the United Kingdom Online brokerages Financial technology companies 2016 establishments in the United Kingdom Companies based in London