Iāll keep this short and sweet - monzo cross promotion is great and has been needed for a long time.
What I would like now is a tighter integration- monzo doesnāt have investment products. They have smart pots and features with money saving techniques - theyāve also launched the ability to pay direct debits directly from pots. Freetrade should be able to sweep that pot and bring it across. We need the autopilot investing now - or some crude mechanics delivered.
Wise need to be involved - they are moving into the bank side of things too - but bring their user base across as well as getting employer pensions working more effectively will drive a huge amount of users across. Wise is used by a lot of businesses as well as individuals. Combine Wise and Freetrade foreign currency processing and half the fee for users of both platforms.
Finally we have ziglu- launched by the CTO of Starling - they are crowdfunding at the moment. Freetrade should merge/takeover Ziglu - they have done everything Freetrade wants to achieve in terms of crypto. Letās not waste time on development when you could work with existing partners.
Freetrade is focused on core development which i truly believe is the best thing to do, other avenues can be delivered via partnerships.
Completely agree. This is a popular topic on the Monzo board too so do go and vote over there. I posted this there in 2018 and it was a popular idea at the time, I think it still would be.
As a freetrade investor Iād love to see them use methods like this to really boost interest in investing in general and freetrade in particular, and they donāt have to stop with Monzo - offer deals to all the big banks too - the more customers they can get in front of as a savings option the better - the comparison right now with the paltry 0.11% you get for saving in a pot in monzo is really stark. Thatās a -3% real rate of return - you are guaranteed to lose money!
Theyād need autopilot to do this probably, but there arenāt too many moving pieces to sort for that - they already have the ability to give monzo the ref, just set up a standing order, then on the freetrade side they need the ability to invest on a schedule for people and invest in some ETFs they already have on board.
If I were freetrade Iād even be happy to guarantee say a 1% rate of return for up to Ā£4000 say over a fixed time period (as long as they control what the pot is invested in, mix of bonds and stocks) so that the comparison with cash saving is a no-brainer - risk is minimal if offering a low return and the reassurance for most investors would be really encouraging. But that could get complex financially for them (would require hedging the risk, everyone wants to withdraw at the same time just after a crash etc), so probably not possible.
Re crypto I have to disagree, I think itās dangerous to get involved at this stage, they should leave it to others.
Crypto just doesnāt make much sense for Freetrade to prioritize. Yes, crypto is attractive to a segment of Freetradeās target demographic and yes it should be part of the mix one day, but the cross-promotion with Monzo makes far more sense in terms of a priority. So much synergy in terms of target demographic and the type of person who would be attracted to one seeing why the other is a leading offering in its field.
Crypto should be rolled out after FT have nailed down all their investment based goals. I hold crypto and would like to have it on FT but itās not a priority, get me EU stocks like LVMH, VW, BESTAS & MERCEDES first and then Autopilot.
Itās just a way of offering diversification to the asset pool of its clients - its acceptance and utility is constantly growing - and people wanting to buy are currently going elsewhere.
It makes sense to deliver a comprehensive solution and it is something Freetrade is already looking at it - just suggesting a quicker route to market.
This is an excerpt from a seedrs mail shot regarding the Ziglu raise
ā Ziglu makes digital finance simple and available to all . Customers have easy and insured access to cryptocurrencies, a Mastercard debit card, and safeguarded GBP accounts. They help grow their customersā money in innovative and secure ways, whether investing in their curated portfolio of cryptocurrencies, or their ground-breaking 5% interest investment accounts .
Very soon, Ziglu plan for customers to also be able to start to build their stocks, funds and commodities portfolio in the same safe and simple way that they expect from Ziglu. They also plan to launch euro accounts with market-leading FX rates.
Key highlights Ā£12m raised so far from world-renowned investors, crypto founders and HNWIs One of the few fintechs to build their own cloud banking platform Customersā digital assets are insured against cyber attacks Featured in BBC, The Times, Reutersā
This is one of the smartest cross-sells iāve seenā¦ somewhere between one and two hundred thousand people paying good money for small frills in a current account getting sent an offer to get free shares signing up with freetrade. And not just the normal āsame offer as if you google itā ones Monzo has done in the past, but a generous and unique offer that will fish out many people who might not normally risk their money buying shares but will give this a go as the first ones are free. Genius marketing from Freetrade here imho.
I reckon apart from (possibly) continuing to cause an extra 5k users a day to join freetrade for the foreseeable future, the conversion of these free share recipients to paid users will be massive as well due to the fact they are all already paying for what could easily be a free bank account if they were not the type of person who can and wants to pay for financial apps that provide them with utility.
So Robinhood has beaten us here. Robinhood is to acquire Ziglu giving it a regulated foothold in the UK.
This was one of my main concerns, especially as Iāve seen innovation on Freetrade taper. Hopefully there is something up Freetradeās sleeve, otherwise Iām a little worried.
@Viktor drop me private message, I want Freetrade to win.
Robinhood have brought a tiny in a market that doesnāt allow them to access their core business payment for order flow. By the time Robinhood get working FT & Other will box them out of the market.
Absolutely, vote with your feet. Itāll take time for Ziglu to be integrated into Robinhood and then they have to decide- given they donāt make a profit - how much capital to allocate to the UK.
Unlikely, especially if they settle in cash. Not sure of the implication if they settle in stock, but ultimately the company if sold, so that probably overrides. I only had EIS.
Ā£92m last valuation - Ā£150m would be nice, but hard to imagine anyone would pay that much for such an early stage company.
But to correct your point, it would only need to be flat in real terms for me to be flat. If they sell + 30%, Iām up 30%. if the original EIS rebate held, it would be more like 85%.
Eitherway, they are up a minimum of 40% - as the first raise on seeders was at Ā£34 and recent one at Ā£48. They have said everyone has made a profit on the sale. Though if they sold at Ā£50, it would be a very poor return for this risk.
Iāve got wirex leftā¦ so hopefully that goes the distance.
Ā£12m raised so far from world-renowned investors, crypto founders and HNWIs
One of the few fintechs to build their own cloud banking platform
Customersā digital assets are insured against cyber attacks
Featured in BBC, The Times, Reutersā
