Company: Wealthify

Year launched:  2014

Management team:   Co-founders Richard Theo & Michelle Pearce

Number of employees:   25

About Wealthify: 

Wealthify is an online investment service that makes investing easy and affordable for everyone. Get started in under 10 minutes and with as little as £1. Our experts build you a global investment portfolio and manage it for you, every day.

How did the idea for the business originate?

Co-founder and CIO, Michelle Pearce left medical school in Edinburgh to pursue a long-standing passion for investing, which had begun as a teenager. She joined Channel Island-based asset management business, Brooks Macdonald in 2009. However, she soon became frustrated with the layers of unnecessary complexity in traditional wealth management services and the lack of investing opportunities for people with average sums to invest, particularly young people like her. She realised that there was a huge potential demand for low-cost digital discretionary wealth management services for people with modest amounts to invest, provided they could be delivered with simplicity and affordability, and the idea for Wealthify was born.

To realise her ambition, Michelle teamed up with Wealthify’s CEO and co-founder, Dr Richard Theo, a Cardiff-based award-winning entrepreneur with a passion and enthusiasm for technology that has driven him to establish a string of successful technology-based companies, all founded on a common belief in innovation through technology.

Wealthify was established in May 2014 and began trading client money in March 2016

How have you funded your growth to date?

To date, we’ve raised £3 million for the business from the founders, angels, a Welsh Government grant and £1.4m via a crowdfunding round in 2016 which attracted over 760 shareholders. In October 2017 we entered into a strategic partnership with Aviva which included them taking a majority stake in the business for an undisclosed sum.

What would a successful 2018 look like for you?
To have identified a new overseas market into which to launch Wealthify in 2019.

U.S. fintech firm Robinhood who offer a platform that let you invest in the stock market for free. Why? They are a fintech that have achieved unicorn status despite putting values ahead of everything else and they have a really cool brand. 

Return to Home