Do Freetrade have any plans to raise finance through VCās I feel very strongly that they need a massive investment to accelerate there growth before Robinhood arrive in 10 months time.
3 Likes
Given the frequency of crowdfunding Iād assume they donāt need VC cash. Not to mention you can often get away with a higher valuation in crowdfunding, giving less equity for more cash 
I feel very strongly that they need a massive investment to accelerate there growth before Robinhood arrive
Any particular reason why? I donāt expect Robinhood to provide anything Freetrade isnāt well ahead of in 10 months time.
2 Likes
I donāt think they can raise anymore through crowdfunding with EIS and with a company valued at 7 billion breathing down your neck,I just feel when Robinhood launch in the UK with all the bells and whistles not to mention the money they have to back them up,there App will be magnificent and probably ready to go with 1000ās of Stocks. I went to look at Rolls Royce shares on Freetrade and they donāt have it,which I found very disappointing.They donāt even have all the FTSE 100 Companies listed. Whatās all that about??
2 Likes
Typically startups that do crowdfunding can only do so many rounds before they progress into VC funding. I suspect that FreeTrade has reached that point or thereabouts.
2 Likes
That is a lot of assumptions based on only the fact that their valuation is highā¦
Most of the shares at the moment get added through stock requests, so might be worth looking into that
Exactly,so I feel they need to act and kick on quite urgently,obviously not being reckless but when Robinhood come calling with all there money they can cause a lot of damage to Freetrade ie: poaching there staff for one
2 Likes
RR. is a stock needed to be settled with reference to the underlying owners Nationality. This makes it impossible currently to execute as part of a batched/4pm run. It could be instant traded only (so there is only 1 persons National Declaration flag to populate) but FT arenāt offering that option yet.
Search for āNational Declarationā in this forum. Thereās been a lot of previous discussion around this topic.
4 Likes
Thank you
FT have roughly Ā£4m more that they can raise with EIS. They have said theyāre looking at VC funding too, though
1 Like
Well I think access to 60-100 million trumps 4 million. They donāt have time to lose
Agreed. Adam has said that they are exploring a larger round, aiming to close by the end of the year. Absolutely this is necessary. They need firepower to compete and simply go faster. Money = Speed. Plus I think a couple of experienced board members would be welcomed by all investors.
6 Likes
This is necessary. But I believe there is the market there for Robinhood, Freetrade and T212 to all be successful.
1 Like
I completely agree.
Freetrade - Friendly, long-term
Robinhood - Techie, high risk
T212 - Jack of all trades (pun not intended)
2 Likes
What is T212?? I googled and nothing came up
Sorry, I just abbreviated Trade 212. Itās mostly a CFD platform with forex, crypto and share spin offs
edit: @AlexR explained it much better below
1 Like
Trading 212.
They offer CFD, a GIA and ISA.
Their GIA (called āInvestā) and ISA are essentially the same as Freetrade. They offer instant free trades for no fee - though the minimum buy amount can vary ie you might need to buy 2 shares to make the trade.
If you want a join them you can message me and Iāll give you a link for a free share.
My personal preference is Freetrade because of the community involvement. But I think all of these players can succeed and Iāll likely have accounts with all as Iām a fintech nerd.
6 Likes
Freetrade are positioned nicely enough to take institutional funding by ~July 2020 at latest. VCs care alot about growth - Freetrade have done well on user growth, if Active user growth and revenues have done the same, VCs will certainly be interested, though theyll be more aggresive with valuation (expect dilution) and terms (liquidation preference, etc) than the crowd was. Post from CEO Adam Dodds in the last crowdfunding round below:
If we assume the intended VC is an EIS fund (as the crowdfund update/email screenshot below suggests) and sole investor, the investment will be a maximum of Ā£6m (knowledge intensive early stage companies can raise Ā£10m yearly, Ā£4m of which was allocated in the crowdfund).
The value of having a VC is capital, of course, and a well networked, experienced institution that can help with growth, key hires, etc. My hope is that freetrade can leverage this for help in talent acquisition especially. The best EIS funds imo are calculus capital and Mercia, both of whom have invested in financial services/Software before.
Also worth mentioning is that if freetrade can only raise ~Ā£7m a year through crowdfunding without having to create a prospectus (a complex financial document that can cost hundreds of thousands of Ā£s to makeā¦) for those wondering about the likelihood/mechanics of a crowd round in the next year.
9 Likes
Thank you for that information.
Donāt go anywhere near them, awful daytrading app.
Can you point me to some examples of Mercia being a good administrator of EIS funds?
1 Like