Freetrade ongoing crowdfunding values broker at £650 million
“This crowdfunding round represents a significant milestone for Freetrade.”
Freetrade has announced a new crowdfunding round that values the investment platform at £650 million.
The brokerage firm aims to use the capital to expand its footprint across Europe as the company prepares to conquer the old continent from its London headquarters.
This is the seventh public crowdfunding round so far in its history, but the first time that Freetrade offers a stake in the company to European residents.
Freetrade’s brokerage system behind the success
Freetrade has experienced phenomenal growth during the Covid-19 pandemic and, since the broker’s last crowdfunding round in May 2020, total registered users on the platform have increased from approximately 150,000 to over 1 million, representing a nearly 600% increase in 18 months.
The launch of new subscription accounts, including ISAs, Freetrade’s Plus membership and the Freetrade Pension has fueled the growth of client assets to now exceed £1 billion.
Freetrade’s proprietary brokerage system, the Freetrade Cloud Platform (FCP), has supported this surge in customers while keeping costs low.
The investment platform first raised money from a crowdfunding platform in 2016. Success has led the firm to raise a total of six rounds, alongside a Series A and B led by top-tier growth investors, Left Lane Capital and Molten Ventures (formerly Draper Esprit).
6 days left but Freetrade already raised 838% of its £1 million target
Now, in the seventh crowdfunding round, the money raised will be used to support Freetrade’s international expansion and development of its proprietary technology.
Adam Dodds, Founder and Chief Executive Officer of Freetrade, said: “This crowdfunding round represents a significant milestone for Freetrade. We’ve built a passionate community of shareholders through six previous rounds, and we’re proud to be able to open up a new round today. As we move into Europe and beyond, we’re committed to keeping our community involved every step of the way.”
With six days left, the crowdfunding page shows that Freetrade already raised more than £8 million from 6328 investors, although the targeted amount was £1 million. Equity at stake is 1.27%.
Freetrade plans to expand across Europe
In the next few weeks, the investment platform will start rolling out access to European stocks. As a part of this, the firm connected FCP to the European market infrastructure, which will enable to launch in Sweden and the rest of the EU.
Freetrade has established an office in Sweden, from where it will oversee the European expansion. For the sake of the firm’s strategic growth in Europe, Freetrade announced the appointment of Karl Broomé as Managing Director for Sweden, as well as Annica Lundblad and Torbjörn Ericsson as non-executive directors.
Broomé has experience in senior compliance and risk roles in financial services and fintech. He joins Freetrade from J.P. Morgan, where he was Chief Country Compliance Officer for Sweden and Finland. At Freetrade, he will accelerate the investment app’s European expansion plans, working closely with European and national regulators to establish operations from our Swedish headquarters.
Annica Lundblad and Torbjörn Ericsson were appointed members of the board as non-executive directors. Ms. Lundblad has played roles at SPP/Storebrand Group, PwC, and Handelsbanken. Mr. Ericsson has been chairman at both Swedish and Nordic Securities Dealers organizations and, lately, CEO of Bankgirot, the only automated clearing house in Sweden.
