I still donāt get NutMeg - was an early adopter of them when they just launched at which point they were revolutionary, but they have hardly evolved in their approach and now already feel outdated to me.
By outdated do you mean they have fees?
I think for some the product does work - I used to use them and now only use them for my LISA
but some people would like to set and forget
(You could argue an ETF is this, and I would completely agree hence I am on Freetreade now)
Not just the fees. Fees will be levied somehow in whatever business model gets applied - some call them charges, some performance fees, some make money through micro-transactions for insta-trades.
Itās just that their fees are high for what you get from them, which are pretty average funds, wrapped in a decent UI but one that in my eyes looks outdated as well.
Itās just that they ask you the tired old risk appetite questions, then give you the options of a number of box standard funds based on risk profile, and subsequently passively manage them with most investment decisions being ratified by a human committee. And for that you pay.
In my mind youāre better off with an ETF, via FreeTrade or elsewhere. What NutMeg are busy doing is digitising an old-fashioned Blockbuster store, rather than inventing the next Netflix.
The Times done some coverage over the information disparity. This is a interesting quote
A source said that while it provided the information to Goldman, āyou do not need to give the same access to the crowdā, and that if it did, it could be exploited by rivals.
The other reason is they will happily lead you to the door ( super early exit! ) if you are not forthcoming with the details.
Did anyone else invest in Nutmeg in this round and receive an email about your shares (E1) and the secondary market offer?
Itās a UK-based company, so the UK Companies House should hold at least annual reports. I did a search for āNutmegā before coming across āNutmeg Saving and Investment Limitedā here.
Although itās outdated, the full year 2017 report they filed in in October 2018 is here. The older accounts were also filed in October, so this is for 2016, this one is for 2015
Here are some screenshots from the report:
They have also been burning quite a bit of cash:
Nutmeg basic numbers in a nutshell
Assets under management (AUM) Ā£1.7bn, over 70,000 customers
(sources - the crowdfunding site)
In comparison, here is what they said before:
2017: AUM surpassed Ā£1bn, over 50,000 customers
2016: AUM Ā£600 mln, 25,000 customers.
(and before that they were a bit vague)
2015: 50% increase in AUM at the end of 2015 and >100% increase in customers.
2014: AUM more than quadrupled, customers grew more than 4x
2013: AUM grew >28x, customers grew from 100s to 1000s
(sources - the accounts filed with the UK Companies House)
Do they need extra cash? Yes because they are going through it fast. Cash at bank was Ā£25.4mln at the end of December in 2017 but they went through Ā£12mln on the operating side alone that year so expecting this number to be as high or higher in 2018 and 2019.
P.S.
Links to the full accounts before may be broken, try: NUTMEG SAVING AND INVESTMENT LIMITED filing history - Find and update company information - GOV.UK
- Now managing Ā£1.8bn in assets
- Turnover up from Ā£4.6m in 2017 to Ā£7.2m in 2018
- Operating expenses increased from Ā£17m in 2017 to Ā£22.7m
- Operating losses increased from Ā£12.4m to Ā£18.6m
- 1/3rd of the costs were due to Marketing
- Customer numbers up to 85,000 from 50,000 at the end of 2017
- 30 per cent rise in customers transferring from Hargreaves Lansdown
from FT: Online wealth manager Nutmeg reveals widening losses.
- There is a average implied margin of 0.48% on revenueās of Ā£7.2m with revenue of about Ā£120 per client a year.
- Mike Barrett, consultant at the Lang Cat, said: āAverage client assets of Ā£25,000 is way below the threshold for a more traditional wealth management firm.
Theyāve been around for yearsāwhatās been taking so long? I have looked at their product a few years ago and just didnāt like the UX and lack of a mobile app (back then). Also, investing directly in (Vanguard etc) ETFs just made more sense, as you knew what was inside them.
Ideas are great, but execution is everything.
Nearly Ā£2bn of AUM is very cool though. But thatās only with 85,000 customers, so there must be a few whales with large accounts at Nutmeg.
Goldman Sachs teams up with Nutmeg to offer Isas in UK
I think itās a very smart move.
Anyone seen this? Wonder what this means for crowdfunders
https://citywire.co.uk/wealth-manager/news/jpmorgan-chase-to-acquire-nutmeg/a1520334
Great news for backers and actually the broader crowdfunding industry as well
Any big names got their eye on Freetrade? Iām willing to negotiate a sale at, letās say Ā£4 billion bid starting point?
I seriously doubt that. How would Freetrade do that? Itās surely going to be a couple of years until then.
Also, Uber is worth around 100 billion and has never made a cent of profit. Itās not a great metric to evaluate young businesses.
I feel that theyāre selling Nutmeg too soon, surely itād be worth Ā£1bn+ plus in another 2 years? Itās good to see success stories in crowdfunding but hoped for more than simply doubling my investment, need more than that to cover the opportunities that may fail.
Adam said on a recent video call that the burn rate is about Ā£1M per month. Revenue in december was Ā£1.4M. that was pre GME AMC user growth. It depends how much the revenue grows with user numbers I guess, also how much the burn rate will increase while expanding into EU. I donāt know the answers to these questions
Nutmeg portfolios underperform the market year on year and have since it was created. Nutmeg seems like a company based upon this idea of Robo Advising, although in practice performs worse than just holding s&p 500 and charges a considerable maintenance fee to boot. Unless im mistaken, does anyone have thoughts on this?
The Financial Times mentioned that JP Morgan paid around Ā£700m for Nutmegā¦
I think its a pretty good valuation for Nutmeg considering the limited growth rate of the last few yearsā¦
From https://www.telegraph.co.uk/business/2021/06/17/jpmorgan-buys-uk-robo-wealth-manager-nutmeg/ If thatās accurate then thatās about 2.5x from the crowdfunding round.