Freetrade to close £7m in second crowdfunding round
Fintech startup Freetrade is set to raise £5m in a crowdfunding round this week, after its last funding attempt got cut short due to excessive demand from investors.
The commission-free stock-trading app last headed to the crowd in April. It raised £2m within a matter of minutes, before investment platform Crowdcube crashed due to too many users trying to access the site – a feat only Monzo has previously achieved.
Freetrade was valued at £43m pre-money ahead of today’s launch, a 13 per cent increase since the April round. Once concluded, the startup will have raised a total of £7m across the two stints.
Freetrade told City PM a number of prominent investors joined the round as it opened today, including British-Nigerian musician Maleek Berry.
It will use the funding to grow its engineering team in London and launch in European markets.
It is also working on gaining full permissions from the Financial Conduct Authority to offer fractional shares, which if approved, will make it the world’s first stockbroker to offer such shares in UK and European stocks.
The startup now has more than 30,000 customers in the UK, with the same amount on its waiting list for non-UK users.
Chief executive Adam Dodds said the firm had witnessed 100 per cent growth since April, and plans to expand to Ireland soon.
“In less than a day, we’ve raised more than half our potential overfunding cap from just a few thousand investors and expect the remaining amount to go within a matter of days,” he added.