Robo adviser Nutmeg sees losses increase to £12.4m

The digital wealth management platform also saw growth in assets under management and its user base.

Nutmeg, the first major robo adviser in the UK, has seen its losses widen by more than a third to £12.4m in 2017, according to Companies House filings.

Nutmeg says it saw revenue growth of more than 75 per cent from £2.6m to £4.6m while the firm had more than £25m of net cash in the bank.

In 2016 Nutmeg lost £9.3m. It had £600m in assets under management at in the beginning of 2017, rising to £1bn by the end of the year. However, the firm seems to have landed just a net 3,000 more users in the year. Suggesting the £400m AUM boost came through large accounts and/or portfolio growth in in its existing accounts.

Martin Stead, chief executive officer, Nutmeg, says the firm’s “mission to democratise wealth management” was on a steady course.

“In 2017 we doubled in size and ended the year managing over £1bn on behalf of 50,000 customers, solidifying Nutmeg as the largest digital wealth manager in Europe. We have made investing more accessible to swathes of people who were previously ignored or over-charged by a self-serving industry.”

Nutmeg clearly is also seeing growth from encouraging investors, new to investment, sign up.

It says 40 per cent of its customers have never invested before; 35 per cent are female – compared to a market average of just 26 per cent; and the average age of investors is 40 – around 10 years younger than the industry average.

“What’s more, we have out-performed the average returns of traditional wealth managers (as independently benchmarked by ARC) every year since inception. We have an ambitious growth agenda and we continue to invest in people, technology and marketing to ensure our award-winning service meets the needs of a much broader range of customers than ever before.”