Traders’ apps popping up everywhere — they all copy Robinhood.
3-in-1: 3 digital news in 1 minute. On Monday. Episode 254
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News 1: Freetrade, British for Robinhood
Freetrade, the British answer to Robinhood. Also mobile-based and commission-free investing in stocks and ETFs but with a freemium model. Freetrade Plus for advanced features and £9.99 per month. Freetrade has officially announced that it will expand to Germany, among other European countries. Left Lane Capital recently invested $35m in a Series B. Opinion for B2B: The way Freetrade works is not new. It’s another mobile broker on the market that uses Robinhood’s innovation of fractional share trading. However, the strong expansion strategy is intriguing.
Stay tuned!
News 2: Webull is the Chinese version
Webull, a subsidiary of the Chinese company Fumi Technology, is another commission-free trading app but with dedicated desktop application for advanced trading. Since November 2020, cryptocurrencies can be traded as well. The app is available in the EU AppStore already, but cannot yet be used for trading in European countries. The date of the European expansion is still unclear. Opinion for B2B: The Chinese offensive against Robinhood is very interesting. Although no fractional share trading is offered, the trading app is highly regarded in the trading community. The trading app is attractive for more advanced active traders — e.g. tools for day trading on the desktop.
It is only a matter of time before we can “bull” in Europe.
News 3: They’ve named themselves a “Super App”
M1 Finance introduces itself as “The Finance Super App”. Money can be borrowed, spent (+VISA debit card) and invested. Investment plans can be automated and M1 Finance technology helps maintain target portfolio allocations through dynamic rebalancing. The US-only M1 app has a total funding of $173.2m. Left Lane Capital is the mobile broker’s strongest investor; they also invested in Freetrade. Opinion for B2B: M1 Finance has a copyright on the name “The Finance Super App”, which is a brilliant move. Bundling all services around a specific topic for the customer in one app reflects the spirit of today. M1 Finance thus is one step ahead of other mobile brokers. We remain curious whether the super app will cross the Atlantic.
Super app but still no really new things in it.
Author is the research team (10 trend scouters) at specialist Space and Lemon (Hamburg, Berlin) — scouting in main tech geographies, in AI development, virtual worlds and e-commerce. Excerpts of research are gathered here in original weekly news since 2016, always with a professional opinion — no re-write of TechCrunch. Research time: May 2021.
Come back next Monday and share your opinion.
