Singapore-headquartered fractional share trading Fintech Gotrade has secured $15.5 million via a Series A round that was led by Velocity Capital Fintech Ventures.
MUFG, BeeNext, Kibo Ventures, Picus Capital, LocalGlobe, Social Leverage, and Raptor also joined GoTrade’s latest investment round.
Established back in 2019, the Gotrade app allows users invest as little as $1 in (exchange-traded-funds) ETFs and fractional shares of US stocks, commission free.
In its first year of operations, the Fintech company onboarded more than 500,000 users from over 140 different countries, transacting over $400 million across five million trades.
Gotrade likens its service to Robinhood, however, without the controversial practice of monetizing order flow.
Instead of this approach, the firm generates revenue from charging 0.5% to 1.2% in FX fees if users decide to deposit their funds in local currency that is then converted into US dollars for trading purposes.
The Fintech company is also testing a premium membership product that gives its clients access to features such as candlestick charts, analyst ratings, target prices and a risk measurement, for a $2 monthly membership fee.
The latest capital injection will be directed towards expanding a professional team that presently includes 40 members and to introduce localized versions of the product, beginning with Southeast Asia, specifically Indonesia.
Gotrade founder Rohit Mulani stated:
“Investing in Southeast Asia is broken. Over 600 million people can’t access quality investment products at fair prices. They are subject to mutual funds with expense ratios exceeding 5%, savings products like gold with 3% spreads and hidden fees peppered across their portfolios – not just by the incumbents but also by the companies that are meant to be the disruptors. We believe that investing should be fair and users should not have to bear these predatory costs.”
As reported in June 2021, Gotrade had raised $7 million in a seed funding round led by LocalGlobe with participation from Social Leverage, Y Combinator, Picus Capital, and Raptor Group as well as angels associated with GoCardless (Matt Robinson), Skyscanner (Carlos Gonzalez-Cadenas), Deutsche Bank (Frank Strauss), and Rapyd (Joel Yarbrough). Gotrade highlighted the list of strategic investors that are queued up to aid in the Fintech’s growth.
Gotrade wants to challenge the likes of Robinhood but on a global basis which remains a largely domestic phenomenon.
Gotrade – the investing app on a mission to make investing accessible to everyone, everywhere – has reportedly launched in Indonesia via a partnership with Valbury Asia Futures, a Bappebti licensed broker.