Australian retail stock investment fintech platform, Simply Wall St, has launched into Canada and New Zealand, and sealed a new partnership in Australia, after more than tripling the number of its users over 2016 in its Australian, US, and UK markets.
The move includes partnering with Canada’s largest and fastest growing independent brokerage, Questrade, and with the developer of Australia’s Class Super and Alan Kohler’s Constant Investor, Class. Al Bentley, CEO and founder of Simply Wall St, said:
“Over the past year we’ve grown with incredible speed to over 90,000 users, had a very successful start of monetization, and made three very important partnerships. It was the perfect time to be launching into new markets,”
“Though we’re still focusing on Australia with the new partnership with Class, much of our growth will be coming from outside Australia heading into the rest of 2017.
“Our launch into Canada flowed incredibly smoothly, as we had been getting almost daily requests to add the TSX to the platform, so it was simply a matter of meeting this demand.”
Partnerships have formed a key part of the growth strategy for Simply Wall St from the beginning, with a NAB Trade division partnership in 2015 being integral to the success of its original $600,000 capital raise from individual investors and the Sydney Angel’s Sidecar Fund.
The app’s rapid success is likely to be attributed to the way it disintermediates the broker from the investment equation, removing the broker’s self-interests, and providing the user with the same high quality financial data used by institutions and professionals, at a fraction of a cost. Al explained:
“Stock brokers were once considered trusted advisers, motivated to help their retail investor clients succeed in the market. But increasingly we’re seeing brokerage fees on the rise, and brokers acting in their own self-interest,”
“Many investors have tried to overcome this by switching to discount brokerages, but though they are obviously cheaper, these brokers cannot provide a great deal of useful advice or help for retail investors.
“In fact, research by the ASX has uncovered that only 53 per cent of full service brokers’ clients are happy with the level of consultation they receive – an incredibly low number, given the consultative nature of their work. The end result can be that the client underperforms the market, or even loses money.
“By removing the broker from the equation, and giving investors access to high quality financial data presented as beautiful infographics that even those without much finance knowledge can understand and act upon, we’re putting the power back into the hands of the investors,”
