Nutmeg’s Martin Stead reveals international expansion to Asia is “imminent” as crowdfunding looks to raise up to £10m

The UK’s oldest digital wealth manager Nutmeg is launching an ambitious crowdfunding campaign on Crowdcube, CEO Martin Stead today revealed.

Speaking exclusively to AltFi Stead said the company’s international Asian expansion is also ramping up, with “our first launch imminent”.

The crowdfunding, which comes after Nutmeg raised £45m from Goldman Sachs and Hong Kong-based Convoy, is aimed to bolster Nutmeg’s coffers with “a seven-figure-sum” according to the company.

Funds will be raised alongside existing institutional shareholders such as Convoy, Taipei Fubon Bank, Goldman Sachs and Balderton Capital.

Speaking to AltFiCrowdcube’s CMO and cofounder Luke Lang said institutions “won't be investing through the [Crowdcube] platform, but it'll be done on the same the same economic terms, and the same valuation as it were.” 

The crowdfund is expected to launch this summer.

On Wednesday, Nutmeg soft-launched a wealth management service in Taiwan with existing investor Taipei Fubon Bank for its staff, the company also said it’s in discussions with over 10 banks and institutions in the UK to license its technology.

“Asian markets have a large and growing population that is currently under-served and over-charged by the traditional players, and where there is no established wealth tech player,” said Stead, who added:

“Further down the line, we’re not ruling out European expansion.”

With regards to the UK the CEO, who succeeded Nutmeg’s founder Nick Hungerford in May 2016, said he believes there’s a market of around 11m people for whom a digital wealth manager is suitable.

Nutmeg currently has signed up 65,000 customers since launching in 2011, recently revealing its assets under management of £1.5bn.

Its latest accounts from 2017 however reveal that losses over this period rose to £12.4m.

“Our primary business focus remains on the direct-to-consumer business in the UK, where we continue to see growth,” said Stead. “We will be working on product innovation and new features for our current and future UK customers.”