Monzo co-founder Gary Dolman joins Tickr as chairman
Sustainable investing app Tickr has enjoyed meteoric growth during the pandemic, closed a £2.5m funding round and will now welcome one of Monzo’s founders to its board.
Founded in 2018 by Tom McGillyCuddy and Matt Latham after stints at Barclays and Wellington Management, the pair wanted to demystify sustainable investing. The Tickr app only offers investments in funds that make a positive impact on the planet.
Latham and McGillyCuddy approached Gary Dolman on Linkedin about two years ago when the banking veteran left Monzo. From there he became an adviser to Tickr before formalising the relationship in the chairman role 18 months later.
“His experience and the war stories and battle scars has been invaluable for us in terms of thinking how we scale customers, how we scale the team and operations,” McGillyCuddy tells City PM “He’s got a great CV… but for Matt and me on a personal level we really get along with Gary, he’s got great experience and wisdom to impart on us.”
Dolman is all too aware of some of the challenges scaling a business and operates as a “level-headed” figure in the team.
“As founders we’re naturally optimists and we want to grow the business. Gary brings that really level headed [approach]. There’s a complementary skill set,” McGillyCuddy adds.
“I’ve lived through it with Monzo where we’ve gone through all the phases into something which is very large, so hopefully some of these experiences I can bring to bear,” Dolman tells City PM
He seems as enthusiastic about the app as the founders: he told City PM he signed up to Tickr almost as soon as McGillyCuddy approached him and encouraged friends and family to download the app.
“It is effectively democratising investments for people who are interested in ESG.”
Tickr has captured a growing interest from millennials in both investments and sustainability, which is all too obvious in its growth trajectory.
Customers are growing 22 per cent month-on-month expecting up to 400,000 UK customers by the end of the year despite the pandemic.
“When you’re in a rapidly expanding startup there is always something hitting you from left field that you need to deal with,” Dolman reminisces. “I’ve been very impressed in the way that they’ve worked through [the pandemic].”