Stockbroking start-up Freetrade’s beta app goes live
Once upon a time, in a tiny bedroom…
UK-based start-up Freetrade has rolled out its beta app as it seeks to grab a succulent share of the stock market.
Adam Dodds, CEO and co-founder at Freetrade, says: “I started Freetrade in my tiny London bedroom two years ago. Back then, investing in the stock market meant high commissions, complicated platforms and stodgy service.”
Keen to play up the David and Goliath aspect of his challenge, he says the firm has a “small team and only £1 million in funding”.
It is a regulated financial institution and the app roll-out is the first product.
Dodds explains that it hasn’t used third parties to do the “heavy lifting on the technology and stockbroking operations side”. Instead, his team created a full stack stockbroker.
In terms of Freetrade’s roll-out plan, “in the weeks ahead” it will be doing the first live trades with a very limited number of customers.
Then, “in the months ahead”, it plans to onboard all its waitlist in queue order. Crowdcube investors are first.
Dodds says that in version one, it shipped an app that allowed users to open a basic account, fund it through a UK bank transfer, and buy or sell UK stocks and ETFs.
It is presently building new features that will ship iteratively during the beta. There are no timelines, but US stocks, fractional shares and ISAs will be “added soon”.
Dodds has previously worked at KPMG UK in M&A corporate finance and auditing.
André Mohamed, is CTO and the other co-founder. His experience includes working at computer software firm Lab49.
Hardly groundbreaking features. The only thing they are challenging are the fees.