I used to see VC firms as pure evil but I listen to the 20 minute VC a lot and see the value they can add in many situations. At the moment Freetrade has first mover advantage in the U.K. and there is an argument that large amounts of capital deployed at this stage could allow the team to take full advantage.
I get the attraction of bootstrapping a unicorn without VC involvement but, given the crowdfund ask is only 1 million ( and I appreciate they’ll get way more), is the hiring and scaling going to be fast enough to avoid Robinhood or Revolut stealing your breakfast? There is an alternate path here where a large amount of capital is brought to bear and things scale faster. I’m really interested to see how this round develops