Nutmeg.com raises funds backed by Schroders and Balderton

UK online discretionary wealth manager Nutmeg.com has raised $32 million. Existing investors include Tim Draper and Daniel Aegerter (Armada Investment Group). New investors include Carphone Warehouse founder Charles Dunstone, asset management firm Schroders and Balderton.

PRESS RELEASE

Nutmeg.com, the UK’s first and only online discretionary wealth manager, today announces that it has raised $32 million as it looks to expand its business.

The latest capital raise means the innovative investment management business has now attracted a total of $50m of shareholder investment. While existing investors include Tim Draper and Daniel Aegerter (Armada Investment Group), new investors include Carphone Warehouse founder Charles Dunstone, asset management firm Schroders, and venture capitalist firm Balderton, which has previously backed companies such as Lovefilm, Betfair, The Hut Group and Zopa.
Nutmeg has transformed the wealth management industry by delivering sophisticated portfolio management to anyone with as little as £1,000 to invest. The company has grown significantly since its public launch in 2012. It now has over 35,000 registered users and customer acquisition in Q1 was 350% up on the same period last year. The new capital raised will primarily be spent on customer acquisition and product development.
Tim Draper, legendary Silicon Valley entrepreneur and start up investor, commented: “We’re seeing an explosion of exciting new financial technology businesses on the scene, and I rate Nutmeg as among the very best. It has a strong board and management team, impressive growth and a proposition built around true customer needs. Incumbents can protest all they want but as soon as I met William and Nick I knew that Nutmeg and companies like it would be the financial services providers of the future. This is a business that stands up against Silicon Valley’s best and that the UK should be very proud of; I’m thrilled to be part of Nutmeg.”

Daniel Aegerter, internet entrepreneur and Nutmeg customer
“Since I first invested in 2012, Nutmeg has grown from a fledging concept into one of the most promising and well-funded growth companies in the country. Nutmeg is a special company because of our genuine dedication to leverage technology to help our customers reach their long term financial goals”.

Nutmeg was founded by Nick Hungerford, a Stanford MBA with a blue chip wealth management background, and William Todd, a financial services software expert who has built derivatives exchanges across Europe and Asia. The Nutmeg team has a wealth of talent, highly experienced in investment management, technology, customer service and ecommerce, while the company’s shareholders have also been integral to the success of digital giants such as Skype, Hotmail, Facebook, Overture, Klarna and Baidu.

Nick Hungerford commented: “Today’s announcement is hugely exciting and goes to show that if you put the customer at the centre of the business, you will prosper. We believe our digital model epitomises the future of investment management. We’ve built an award-winning service from the ground up, one that delivers brilliant portfolio management at an incredibly low cost, in a way that is secure, transparent and above all convenient for the customer.”

Tim Bunting, General Partner at Balderton, added: “We love Nutmeg because they have taken the complex and often opaque area of wealth management and made it straightforward and transparent for consumers. Nick Hungerford and the Nutmeg team are passionate about making top quality wealth management available to everyone, not just the wealthy. They are the first mover in this area and have grown very fast over the last 12 months to become a strong and trusted brand.”