How did it all begin?
When Alec was working at Citi, facilitating options trading for professional clients, he became increasingly frustrated with how inaccessible the options market was for non-professionals and those without access to private bankers.
That’s what sparked the beginning of an idea, and he set out on a mission - to make the options market more accessible to investors like you and me.
Be mindful, options are considered high risk investments due to their complex nature and are not suitable for all investors.
Having been friends with Ross for over 10 years, and with Ross’ start-up business experience - they came together to develop the idea into something tangible.
Building the dream team
Getting the right people on board from day one was critical, and so they approached both Keerut, who had worked with Alec at Citi and has a wealth of knowledge about the options landscape, and Ian, the former CTO and founder of Freetrade.
Being one of the original backers of the Investa vision, and one of the very first investors, too, Keerut says “The opportunity was clear. Some UK investors want to trade options but accessibility is a problem. Existing platforms only cater for the 1% of UK adults that currently trade options . We have found that many of these platforms are unintuitive, lack educational features and charge substantial commission to trade. I wanted to be part of the team building a platform for the investors out there who have the risk appetite to trade options, but simply can’t right now.”
Ian, having scaled the engineering team and Freetrade app from the ground up, overseeing the onboarding of the very first customer to laying the foundations for the next 1mn+ customers, was eager to extend his impact in the options space, too. And so the early team was formed.
Getting the regs
The UK, as you’d hope and expect in order to best protect consumers, has notoriously high regulatory barriers for launching a financial product. With the experience and diligence of the team, in March 2024, Investa was listed as an Appointed Representative on the Financial Services Register. This status permits Investa to conduct certain regulated activities under the oversight of an FCA-authorised principal firm, setting us on the path towards launching the UK’s first zero commission stocks and options trading app.
Be mindful, options are considered high risk investments due to their complex nature and are not suitable for all investors. Other fees may apply.
The Funding Journey
As with many start-ups, our initial fundraise came through friends, family (thanks to all those aunties and uncles) along with Angel Investors who knew the options space and recognised the need for change here in the UK. With Ross and Alec working from a make-shift office in Alec’s parents’ garage, Ian advising on the tech side, and Keerut on the sidelines bouncing ideas, it was full-steam ahead.
Fast forward a few months, a couple of engineers, a very early version of the app to when Rachel, with her experience in the fintech and crypto space, also joined as an advisor to help shape the GTM and we put the wheels in motion for our first crowdfunding campaign.
With such an engaged and like-minded audience on Crowdcube, we began our mission to spread the word. The interest in Investa was immediate and we were overwhelmed by the response from the community. After hitting our crowdfunding target whilst in early access, we went on to become 200% overfunded and closed our round.
Massive shout out to all our Crowdcube investors - this early support really propelled us forward and it was truly humbling to hit a record breaking 500+ shareholders (the most of any pre-launch product on crowdcube in 2024).
Testing, Testing, Testing
Lots (and lots) of building and testing later - more on the detail of that in a technical blog - we sent out a call for any budding user testers on our waitlist.
Those early conversations, some in person, some over video call were absolutely critical in iterating the flow of the app. It also gave us invaluable insights about what you, our audience, think, feel and want from the Investa experience. Of course, user-testing is and remains core to our approach and product development - so if you ever want to help out, sign up here.
A few hurdles, and hoops to jump through, later we were ready to onboard the internal team. That’s when things started to get real! No longer trading on a test account, we were able to deposit real money and make live trades.
Onboarding immediate friends and family came next, to expand the circle, before launching Priority Access.
What Comes Next
Now it’s all about building new features, getting more users on board and constantly listening, iterating and talking to our growing army of investas. We also want to hear what you think so if you have any thoughts, small or big, please let us know here.