I just did a deeper dive into the team that they currently have in place:
Less than 10 headcount (7 I think), Ā£75k seed funding so far from a Lithuanian Accelerator. Most of the team are disparately located around the world (Barcelona, Australia, Lithuania, Poland, London). The CEOās mum is the Head of Research for the business, the CTO has a second job at BNP Paribas (which was started after joining the Evarvest team).
It looks like they went the route of locating the business in Lithuania and are using the more ārelaxedā/supportive of innovation licencing that the country is known for to have to obtain their licence that they plan to use to āpassportā their way through Europe but have also applied for licence via FCA for the UK market
Their job page asks āWould you be open to working on an equity basisā - which I can only take means no salary just equity - not sure how common that isā¦
Will wait to see what comes through on the pitch and webinar this week but after initial excitement about another challenger im concerned by the inexperience of the team in place - however if they have a solid development team in place (outsourced at this point im guessing) then they could get the basics out to a relatively large market and gain traction enough to help push them forward and get more features in placeā¦
FreeTrade is aimed at taking out the middle-man through their investment platform. EvaVest relies heavily on a middleman.
Provided that FreeTrade can get their investment platform out in the new few months, and open up the stock universe to 1000ās of global stocks; rather than the current 100ās predominantly U.K./US stocks, then I think that FreeTrade will be a better long-term bet, as they have their own platform to build from and a more sustainable commercial model by taking out the middleman.
My main concern for the short-term is that EvaVest seems to have a more developed app, is more geared towards social (which presumably a lot of new inexperienced investors may value as it gives a security blanket) and that they have 1000ās of stock to choose from. All that combined may mean that they get faster traction than FreeTrade, if the latter moves too slowly.
That does depend on how much of the claimed functionality is actually live in the app on day 1 - much of the product features is actually a product roadmap with some design mock screens to tempt people inā¦ Iāve already asked for clarification via their community page as a question for the webinar of what is going to be in the āgo liveā app versus roadmap for clarification - its easy to tempt people in with all these āshinyā features/designs but if you havent got a hope in hell on delivering on them for the next 12 - 18 months then we know how āfickleā we all are as users around delivery timeframes!
No - one of the āfeaturesā - News - was clearly a mocked image - theyād even made a mistake that they have now corrected since I pointed it out (they had the āInvestā icon highlighted in the dashbar at the bottom of the screen instead of āNewsā)
Given the cashflow into the business to date and the size of the team iād say its highly unlikely they have all these features developedā¦ and if they have iād be questioning their business logicā¦ get to market quick with a fully working MVP and iterate new features onto thisā¦ basic Agile development rather than Waterfall development methodology.
Good idea - iāve updated the comment with a link, cheers - really interested in their response to my question about feesā¦ the way im reading it - iām not sure there is any way to do a trade at the moment without feesā¦ either small margin added to fx fees for buying outside of your āhome currencyā or small commission for buying anything not on the NYSE or NASDAQā¦ iāve probably misunderstood something but needs clarifyingā¦
Yes, as āoverfundingā is normal in this space. The target is only really a minimum target Just like Freetradeās most recent round, they had a public target of Ā£1m but an internal one of ~ Ā£4m.
Different companies use different tactics to boost the profile of their raise, including often starting the raise of with already secured big funds showing as it signals something to prospective investors.
Normally it signals weāll take anything over what we have. Make of that what you will. Interestingly this will trigger AutoInvest investments on Seedrs.
Thatās great, but I take signals on a case by case basis. There are some instances where I would come to your conclusion and others where - a VC alongside the raise is credible for instance - it would signal something distinctly positive.
I would agree, if that VC contributes to reaching the target, rather than swallowing up the initial target.
I find it highly suspicious that they are based in Vilnius and the first investor is an anonymous from Vilnius who took the whole initial target.
To me it reeks of desperation. Set an incredibly low target and then pre-seed it with a lined up investor (whomever that may be), to give the illusion of demand by artificially creating an over-funding situation.
Their pitch deck doesnāt say anything new by the way. Looks good, but itās regurgitating all that has been said by RobinHood, FreeTrade etc.
They try to differentiate by having perhaps a more social angle (which I like) and āSpotify playlistsā of stocks (which are just a way to filter things, but kinda cute for novice investors). Either doesnāt provide a sustainable competitive advantage.
They are more less the same as FreeTrade in a direct comparison. They are somewhat disingenuous when they say in their deck that FreeTrade offers free commission, but that is for delayed trades, whilst they use a similar mechanic.
Their big differentiators are their large stock universe, but FreeTrade can release that when their Investment Platform goes live. And their geographic expansion plans, but I am finding those stupidly ambitious, to the point of knowingly lying.
The one thing in their plan FreeTrade should seriously consider is pensions. This could be a key differentiator.
Their app launches H2 this year. So Iād say, FreeTrade has tops six months to release their investment platform and push out a stock universe that is in the 1000ās rather than the current 100ās, and to copy a few of the social features perhaps. If so, I canāt see Evarvest as a credible threat, even more so as they rely on an intermediary and FreeTrade wonāt when their investment platform goes live.
To cut a long story short: the pressure is on FreeTrade to deliver the investment platform. All roads lead back to this it seems.
I was speaking generally and so not in reference to Evarest as Iāve no interest in them.
My point is judge on a case by case basis otherwise if you take Emmaās approach of a blanket negative signal to all prefunded or boosted raises, youāre not being rational but behaviourally biased.
There are so many companies out there seeking investment or to attract people to use their product, that the onus is on them to build trust.
If there was VC or a big investor lined up they should have factored that into the raise. Of course thereās a chance that this person/people didnāt make any inquiries beforehand but I would find that surprising.
Having read the pitch deck, I do like the idea of the social element i.e. being able to follow the trades that other users are making.
I have my doubts as to whether theyāll be able to launch a viable app this year though. Even if they raise triple their minimum target (letās say 225k euro) I canāt see that being sufficient to build & support an app that could compete with Freetrade and the other trading apps that are already available.
Just like Freetradeās most recent round, they had a public target of Ā£1m but an internal one of ~ Ā£4m.