In the FT this morning.
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Brief mention of FT https://www.cnbc.com/2023/08/16/uk-launches-1-billion-fintech-growth-fund-to-compete-with-us.html
via https://twitter.com/ownsomeshares
If FT can get some of that moolah for series C that would be fantastic
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FT looks like an ideal candidate on paper
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I read a couple articles on this! Looking promising for UK fintech and hopefully signals the bottom is in.
- £1bn is big, although considered small compared to the US and the $2bn per year gap identified by the Kalifa review. I guess there could be some more in future
- UK, Series B to Pre-IPO and Peel Hunt is focussed on Series C specifically
- £10m to £100m, 4 to 8 investments per year
- First investment to be completed by the end of the year
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New Managing Director of Sweden announced, looks like someone with strong startup and founder experience within Fintech.
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Head of Sweden as posted to a European-wide title is of note.
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‘Emma Ödqvist as head of Sweden and she has been tasked with increasing the speed of the company in Sweden’
Let’s hope so!!!
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Not sure if this has been shared anywhere but worth a read. An interview with Adam Dodds
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This doesn’t mention Freetrade but I wonder if they may have involved in discussions with the industry execs. It also plays well into receiving some of the £1bn UK fintech growth fund.
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Jeremy Hunt plans Isa overhaul to boost share ownership
Chancellor Jeremy Hunt is planning the biggest shake-up to Individual Savings Accounts in years to persuade more people to take advantage of the tax-free vehicles and use them to back London-listed companies.
UK Treasury officials have met investment industry executives in recent weeks to discuss how to simplify the current array of Isa products and remove barriers to investing in the stock market, according to people briefed on the discussions.
One radical option being considered is an additional Isa allowance for investing in UK companies, according to these people, although this work is said to be at a preliminary stage.
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Hunt could scrap tax on saving accounts, maybe he should start with that. But I suspect he will make things overly bureaucratic to justify his position.
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How would scrapping tax on savings encourage people to invest in the uk stock market?
I was speaking in general, so long as Britain remains a high tax society it makes is harder for people to invest in the first instance.
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No idea how this would persuade more people to take advantage of ISAs.
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This is interesting. Hopefully, this new allowance would include investment companies/trusts.
I don’t think it’s that bad an idea to give people an additional allowance to invest in UK stocks.
Rather than tinkering with Isa rules though, I think they be better off reforming stamp duty.
That 0.50% is a big barrier.
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It’s a fair point! I think part of the general goal is to get more people in the savings/investing habit. I think a monthly limit could work quite well to achieve that (say up to say £500 per month). And if they allowed it to be off gross salary if you hold for a long enough timeframe, like a corporate share scheme, then it would be better than a pension.
Ideally allowing diversified ETF’s & Inv Trust’s which are managed in the UK, despite them not being focussed on soley UK holdings. Or just the ETF’s which allocate a reasonable amount to the UK like 10%+
It’s a positive tihnking for investors and for FT and is in contrast to the thinktank considering cutting ISA’s in some way.
One of the suggestions in the FT comments, was rename it to a “Tax Free Account” to make it a no brainer and the first choice that people go for long term savings/investments!
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Freetrade is certainly growing up,this is very reassuring 
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Deloitte released the Tech Fast 50 with Freetrade at #4.
The top looks at the fastest growing technology companies in the UK in 2023.
It shows Freetrade had 18,090% revenue growth in '23 from what I can tell.
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Is this 18,000% since startup in 2016 or 18,000% just this year?
Some more info is needed - is this revenue growth, market size what? I mean if market value then Freetrade was £20,000,000 in 2016 therefore an 18,000% increase would now value us at £3.6billion?
Confused
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Its last 4 years of growth,
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