Freetrade, a commission-free trading platform headquartered in London, has released its trading results for the financial year 2022.
The company reported in a Companies House filing, that its revenue for the period surpassed £15.6 million, marking a notable increase of 23.8%. However, its losses reached £39.7 million compared to the previous year’s loss of £17.1 million.
Operational expenses
The filing stated that the Group’s financial year’s loss was primarily attributed to a heightened level of costs. Specifically, sales costs escalated from £1.6 million to £2.2 million, while “other operating expenses” surged from £29.27 million to £55.7 million.
Freetade stated:
The most significant increase was in staff cost. The total headcount of the company reached over 300 employees by March 2022. However, it slashed the workforce significantly, which came down to 184 at the end of September 2022.
Freetrade also successfully raised a significant amount of funds in the previous year. It secured £8 million through a crowdfunding round, with the participation of 6,869 investors from the UK and Europe. Additionally, two institutional shareholders of the company invested £29.3 million through a convertible loan note.
A jump in registered users
Last year, the platform experienced a 51% surge in registered users, surpassing 1.33 million compared to 886,743 at the previous year’s end. The company attributed this growth to a strategic investment in marketing, including a large-scale out-of-home campaign, along with continuous investment in the highly efficient ‘free share’ referral program.
The increase in new users had a positive impact on trading activities. The platform witnessed a net influx of new funds amounting to £598.4 million, surpassing the £552.4 million achieved in 2021, resulting in a total opening of £897.5 million. Furthermore, the overall trading volume on the platform experienced a 9% increase, totaling £3.6 billion.
The firm emphasized that despite a decline in global market indicators last year, there was a notable rise in trading demand.
The filing said:
Looking ahead to the next financial year, we continue towards our mission to get everyone investing… Teams remain dedicated to developing new features and products for the UK and European countries that will further enhance Freetrade’s value proposition and add potential revenue streams in a competitive market.
