Ricky Knox (centre), Nick Perrett (top-left) and Phil Bungey (right of Perrett) / Prosper team
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Exclusive: Tandem Bank co-founders launch ‘Prosper’ with £3.2m, aiming to reshape wealth management
Backed by Tom Blomfield, Charles Delingpole, Matt Cooper and a host of other prominent investors
In a move to revolutionise traditional wealth management, fintech heavyweights Ricky Knox, Nick Perrett, and Phil Bungey have secured £3.2m in pre-seed funding to launch a new low-cost digital wealth app, Prosper — AltFi can exclusively reveal.
Launching today, Prosper has attracted investments from leading fintech figures, including Monzo's co-founder Tom Blomfield, ComplyAdvantage executive chair Charles Delingpole, and Capital One's co-founder and Tandem chair Matt Cooper.
Knox, previously the CEO and co-founder of Tandem Bank, shared with AltFi that Prosper aims to be the "TransferWise of wealth management," aiming to drastically cut the standard fees in the industry.
After observing the rise of digital banks, Knox identified an opportunity to challenge the prevailing high-fee culture in wealth management upon his departure from Tandem in May 2021.
“I have no doubt that digital banks will take massive market share off the banks in the next five to 10 years, but that hasn’t happened in wealth,” Knox told AltFi.
“There's maybe tens of thousands of customers in total across all of the [wealth] challengers… but I think the change is starting to happen.”
Addressing this, Prosper aims to attract high net worth and mass-affluent investors by offering substantially lower fees compared to both traditional and most competing platforms.
Prosper's initial offering includes fee-free investments in public market index funds, absorbing even the fund fees, and options for SIPP or ISA wrappers. Additionally, they will provide competitive interest rates on cash savings and a range of private and alternative investment opportunities.
“We want to build a customer champion business that focuses on keeping as much money in our members' pockets, whilst running a sustainable business,” Nick Perrett, Tandem Bank’s former chief product officer and now Prosper CEO, told AltFi.
“We believe most people do not understand what they are paying for the management of their money.”
“When pretty much every part of the ‘wealth’ value chain, from platforms, to advisors, to indexes, to asset managers are making 30-55 per cent net profit margins — ultimately from your hard-earned cash — and being paid extremely well, you know something isn't quite right.”
Under the experienced stewardship of Phil Bungey, Nutmeg chief operating officer and Prosper's third co-founder, the fintech is currently invite-only with a public launch slated for Q1 2024 and a crowdfunding campaign soon to be launched on Crowdcube.
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