Forum AMA with Freetrade CEO & Founder, Adam Dodds, Thu 26 May

[adam]

@hookedinvesting

Expansion outside of EU:

• How are the licence applications progressing in Australia and Canada?
• Are the Australian team actively working on AUS accounts, outside of their work on Crypto?
• Do you expect Freetrade to launch in Australia/Canada before the end of the year?

It is interesting how different the paths to authorisation are in the UK v Sweden v Australia v Canada. We’re at the point now where we need to decide when we want to launch in these new markets. It is more of a resource allocation decision and Europe is up first.

[adam]

@Callum

Lots of good questions have been asked already. I have one other question regarding competition.

1. How do you see the increasing competition from the dozens of new stock brokers popping up in the UK affecting user growth and pricing power for Freetrade?

We embrace competition, but haven’t seen anything that interesting in the UK tbh. More interesting competition on the continent for sure.

[adam]

@Raul

• Are we worrying about the competitors or are obsessively focused on serving our customers, while paying attention to what competitors are doing just in case we can learn something from them?
• Can we use the Freetrade app when on holidays on the International Space Station? (this has to be the best question I have ever asked which serves to show there’s room for improvement for my question asking skills)
• Any chance we can have a shareholder meeting or AMA on the metaverse? (I’m in search of a rationalised excuse to buy an headset)

[adam]

@esteban

Considering the current financial environment, are you considering putting the expansions to Canada, Australia and Japan on hold to reduce burn and focus on Europe where you already have a licence?
It seems to me that getting a licence (among other expansion related costs) is a lengthy and expensive process.

Getting licensed is lengthy but not that costly. The harder decisions are around deploying engineering, marketing and operational resources once authorised. We’re focused on Europe first.

[adam]

@nim

Congrats on the convertible round. Perfect solution for the current market.

1. I would like to see the introduction of recurring and regular investing enablement for our customers. i.e. autopilot, sweep of funds from saving pots in monzo, employer sipp. When can we expect this? This should significantly improve AUM.
2. Please look at partnerships with TransferWise & Monzo, they have a massive customer base - potential to reduce Fx fees for joint customers of TransferWise and maybe £1-2 savings for Monzo customers. Are we considering any partnerships?
3. Enhance the referral model, free shares are great. However, I think free shares should only be given post completing a Freetrade course and a social media post. Increases awareness and educates potential customers - are you considering a change to increase revenue on the back of these customers? What are the retention rate for these customers? Do you do follow up mails for customers which don’t fully convert?
4. I want to invest in the convertible, will it be available to the crowd? Any info on terms?
5. Crypto bear market and retail lull is great for our delayed roadmap. I think we have 3-6 months before markets start to pick up significantly - can you advise what from our road map will be delivered by then? We need to capitalise on this.
6. We need to improve our ability to educate customers and help them make diversified trading decisions. Can we include diversification scores or any other sector based reporting? I honestly feel Freetrade customer will benefit from this education.
7. Not a question, but good luck. This year has huge potential.

1. Building it right now

2. Yep, nothing to announce right now.

3. We have been playing around with the referral model and you will see more of that.

4. That’s the plan, see earlier post.

5. That’s a big question, will politely defer to a future post on our roadmap priorities once Sweden launches in full.

6. We have started that on your Insights tab, agree we need to continue to develop these tools to help our customers make better investment decisions.

7. Thanks!!

[adam]

@MohammedMohammed

I have one question,When will autopilot be available? To make it an easy question to answer,the year will do!

2022, FSD a bit longer

[adam]

@CashCow

But I’m going to ask again…will LISAs come before the end of 22/23 tax year? Please @adam, save me from ‘Hey! Jay, well?’

That’s a better question for Viktor, I may have seen a business case for XISAs this week… the Swedish team needs to ship ISKs first though

[MohammedMohammed (Mohammed)]

For the amateurs out there FSD= Full Scale Development(so says google)

Thanks for answering the questions in such a clear and in-depth way. I would say this has been the best engagement ever. Keep up the good work,I really get the feeling that “IT” is just around the corner??

[adam]

@nico850

Given the repeated delays about expansion in Europe with various dates being reported but not being met:

1. could you please provide a realistic and feasible timetable for when Freetrade will expand into the rest of Europe and how it will do so?
2. in another thread it was mentioned Q3 2022 for EU expansion, but could you specify if at that date FT will launch in all European countries at once or at that date FT will just start the rollout country by country?
3. If the second option is the case, which countries will be chosen after Sweden: the 4 initially indicated (Ireland, France, Germany and the Netherlands) or did FT change the focus of how rollout will be done?
4. When do you think FT will be accessible in all occidental countries of Europe?

Thanks!

1.,2.,3.,4. See previous answer - Irish app will be made available across Europe first, where an English language app is OK for regulations. Next few months or so. We have a regulatory passport for all EU countries now. We’re going to keep our cards close to the chest on the localised apps that come next.

[adam]

@My.financial.journey

Are uk fractionals being worked on this year ?

When do Freetrade hope to break even ?

How is the recruiting going ?

Whats the biggest challenge for Freetrade this year ?

1. Yes, but not amongst the next features you’ll see.
2. At some point in the next 24 months, might need to make that sooner.
3. We have no problem filling roles as needed. The more senior roles take more time.
4. Navigating a rapidly changing macro environment is front of mind right now.

[adam]

@mikesmart

Do Freetrade have any paying corporate clients making use of Freetrade IP / APIs?

No, it is not a product we have launched.

[adam]

@hookedinvesting

Can you confirm what the current runway is for the business?

Given the current environment, I would imagine marketing budgets and other areas have already been significantly reduced. So the previous pitch deck would no longer be accurate.

That’s correct, we’re adjusting spend to ensure we have 24+ months of runway.

[adam]

@Wulfy

Like this question.

Freetrade previously had Api as a source of revenue in the future. Is there anymore than we can share?

Not yet

[adam]

@marcofasi

Last question: how long will it take to @adam to reply to all these questions? It’s gonna be a loooooong session

Good point, the quality of my answers is degrading… I’ll answer the rest tomorrow

[AchillesFirstStand]

@MohammedMohammed

For the amateurs out there FSD= Full Scale Development(so says google)

It’s a joke on Tesla, I believe. Full Self-Driving is always far away.

[MJE (Mike)]

Thanks

1. Perhaps I should have clarified I was including ETFs in the broad sweep of “UK shares” So autopilot/autoinvesting will be available in 2022, but UK fractionals aren’t being worked on as a priority? How’s that going to work? Freetrades benchmark VWRL has cost over £90 a share at times in the last year. Is it going to be autopilot without fractional UK shares/ETFs?

2. Fairly sure UK REITs in ISAs has been a decently requested feature as long as I’ve been here. Would be good to get an update if you hear back.

[fryry]

Waiting for regulatory clarity for crypto is a mistake IMO. Uber and airBNB didn’t wait for regulatory clarity and neither will FT competitors on crypto. The govt has said they want the UK to be a major crypto hub and what better example of that would there be for FT to be a major player in crypto in the UK and Europe. If you wait for clarity you will be waiting a long time and FT will be in 10th+ place in crypto.

Annecdotely about half of the investors I know now split their portfolio between crypto and stocks and FT is leaving money on the table by not at least having a basic crypto offering ASAP. No need for deposit/withdraw functionality etc. Just being able to invest in the top 10 tokens in FT would be a great start.

P.S. Coinbase don’t even do profit and loss calculations on your position. It blows my mind. FT could come up with a much better offering.

[J4ipod94]

Waiting for regulatory clarity is fair in an environment where the return on capital is going to be ever more important. If regulations are wildly different across regions and they are constantly being amended then that’s a very expensive and time intensive bit of development work. We are already seeing how hard it is to expand into Europe with a more established framework.

[Emmie]

The UK REITs in ISAs has been requested multiple times over the last few years. We haven’t had much back in the way of updates and it would be really good to get this up and running. If this could be prioritised I know it would make a lot of users happy!

[SlimShadey (Mr X)]

@adam

I’ll answer the rest tomorrow

Looking forward to the rest of the answers later tonight!