Freetrade sets crowdfunding record as seeks valuation of £650m

The CEO of Freetrade says its latest crowdfunding campaign has set a new record, as it undertakes a fresh round of funding aiming to more than double its value to £650m in less than a year.

The trading and investment platform, which recently hit one million customers and surpassed £1bn in assets under administration, began the crowdfunding this week.

A valuation of £650m would more than double Freetrade’s value from earlier this year, when it was valued at £270m in March.

The latest crowdfund from Freetrade, which has also raised money from traditional venture capital investors, marks its seventh round of fundraising from the public since its inception in 2016.

In a series of tweets, Adam Dodds,Freetrade CEO, revealed further details of the crowdfunding, saying it had set records for speed of raising funds on crowdfunding site Crowdcube.

: “Today we set a new record as the first company on Crowdcube to raise £6m, £7m or £8m in less than 24 hrs (working on £9m right now). We’ve been overwhelmed by the demand for investment into Freetrade once again.”

He said that investors from 63 countries had taken part in the fundraise.

According to Crowdcube,Freetrade has currently raised £8.2m, clearly eclipsing its target of £1m.

Dodds

about the “pretty solid returns” for those that have invested in Freetrade to date.

He shared statistics showing the lowest annualised IRR was 124 per cent from a fundraise in 2018.

The stats, tweeted by Dodds, also show the highest ROI for an investor was 11,526 per cent if they had put money into its crowdfunding campaign in 2016.

The rise in the value of Freetrade comes amid a boom in retail stock trading, particularly during the pandemic, with customers, many of them younger, finding time and money to invest via their smartphones.

Dodds has previously said that next year would see “battleground Europe” among investment apps.

Freetrade is currently the second largest retail broker by the number of trades on the London Stock Exchange.

“It’s humbling that our customers have entrusted over £1 billion in assets with us,” Dodds has previously said.

"We built Freetrade to make investing more accessible, supporting our customers in making decisions that should benefit their finances over the long term.

“We’ve brought simple investing to hundreds of thousands of customers for the first time. And we’re going to carry on this momentum with renewed dedication to a clear belief: investing should be accessible to everyone.”

Over the past year, it has launched its own Self Invested Personal Pension (SIPP) and added new features to its app.

It also plans to launch into cryptocurrency trading in the New Year.