Nutmeg to crowdfund on Crowdcube
Pre-money valuation on 22nd January 2019 was Ā£200 million, they raised Ā£45 million.
They are still losing a lot of money āNutmeg losses soar to Ā£12.4 million as regulatory costs biteā
Itāll be interesting to see what the new valuation is, and what their plans are.
Nice to see Freetrade get a mention in this FT article:
āUK online wealth manager Nutmeg plans to raise up to Ā£10m from its own customers in a crowdfunding campaign this year designed to ride the same wave of popularity that garnered large sums for finance apps including Monzo and Freetradeā.
Speaking about Freetrade, if Freetrade were to add pre-made Portfolios like Nutmeg then Numteg could become redundant.
There is a real chance that with the Freetrade Platform, Nutmeg gets disruptedā¦
Worth noting Nutmeg are looking to diversify their revenue streams with international expansion and by licensing their tech and look to be making some headway on this front. Although, I do wonder if Freetradeās āInvestment Platformā thatās on the roadmap has similar ambitions?
I donāt understand what Nutmegās ātechnologyā is?
It seems incredibly simple; they will have a range of ETFs and then match them to an individuals self-selected risk appetite. Itās not like Scalable Capital where they are super-active and have algorithms to actively rebalance.
Anyone have any further detail on this/am I missing something here?
Hey, ātechā is my poor choice of words, but itās clear to see the article says ālicensing its serviceā which I assumed to mean the same but youāre right in pointing out itās actually probably not on second thought Partnersips with others rather than anything fundamentally tech stack related is what seems to be evidenced but the Pitch will surely reveal more.
Oh yes, Iām not questioning your interpretation! I agree, thatās how I read it too. Iām curious what they mean by that in their own terms.
I canāt help but see it as false or overly positive. I canāt see them having anything close to proprietary technology, and in terms of portfolio curation they donāt do anything an active manager couldnāt (smart beta managers are a thing, classic active management but with ETF investments).
Nutmeg was an appealing product in the pre-Freetrade days. Mostly because no one else offered something like them. In fact, as I see it right now their strongest core product offering is their LISA.
Other than that it doesnāt seem particularly appealing as an investor, their business model can be easily replicated, and faster-moving companies like Freetrade will cannibalize their customer base.
I havenāt looked at Nutmeg for ages (decent design, active mgmt and highish fees then), but donāt they serve a different market? Nutmeg and other robos are serving a Do It For Me market. Vs Freetrade, stockbrokers and other stock platforms who are very much Do It Myself.
I donāt get what has changed since the Goldman valuation in January (Ā£245m) to justify the speculated Ā£1bn valuation?
I want to like Nutmeg but havenāt had a great experience so far with the pension Iāve opened. Glitchy on boarding process and poor customer service. Probably the best UI/UX out there right now though. Hopefully a pension is on the horizon with Freetrade!
This was an interesting read! Comments are very negative about Nutmeg at the bottom of the FT articles, with guesses on the valuation being between Ā£500m & Ā£1bn and 2-4x the last valuation!
Lloyds, NatWest, Nationwide and Santander all plan to launch (or have launched) Robo-Advisor propositions. Nutmeg needs to partner with these or itās going to really struggle IMO as itās one of the most expensive Roboās out there, so canāt compete on price or brand against these.
For FT subscribers thereās some further analysis: Will Nutmegās crowdfunding plans cut the mustard?
Iāve been fairly happy with my Nutmeg LISA so far, but articles like those above make me slightly uneasy about keeping my money with themā¦
If Freetrade were ever to offer something similar Iād switch in a heartbeat
If anyone has a campaign direct link pls. post it there, thanks.
I like nutmeg in many ways as itās easy to use, but in reality what they are doing is take a Blockbuster store and digitise it, rather than invent the next Netflix.
Itās just the same old tired investment model, but digitally enabled. I canāt seem them becoming a big player as they are likely to be overtaken by new players who do radically reinvent what investing means to the masses.
I too have a nutmeg ISA which I have invested in for the last few months and introduced me to investing in general. The fees are, naturally, higher that Freetrade but I am not sure how much crossover there is in the market. I think there is a big difference psycologically between sending Ā£100 a month into a fully managed ISA to actually āspendingā that money on stock in Freetrade.
I am currently on the Socially Responsible portfolio on Nutmeg, and if by next tax year Freetrade has a good assortment of SRI ETFs available I will certainly switch to a Freetrade ISA. However I am not sure how comfortable a lot of Nutmeg (and other roboās) target market would be doing that.
As for crowdfunding, I think at this stage I will save my money for the Freetrade crowdfund rather than the Nutmeg one as Freetrade is where I can most imagine my investments held in the future.