Freetrade, the UK commission-free stock trading platform, continues its investment in new executive talent, with the hiring of Revolut’s former finance executive Paul Brooking as Chief Financial Officer (CFO).
As CFO at Freetrade, Mr. Brooking will be responsible for ensuring that the finances of the high-flying app can continue to accelerate growth, capitalizing on the expanding worldwide demand for its solutions. Reporting to CEO Adam Dodds, he will be tasked with finance functions including controllership, tax, internal audit, financial planning and analysis, treasury and investor relations.
Prior to Freetrade, Paul was Deputy CFO and Head of Financial Control at Revolut but left after spending only 11 months into his employment with the UK fintech unicorn. He joined Revolut from Paysafe Group in August 2020, having previously served there as SVP and Group Financial Controller for three years.
Mr. Brooking spent the bulk of his career at the UK leading broker IG Group where he held a variety of analogues roles including the Group Financial Controller, Head of Finance and Head of Corporate Finance. An eight-year tenure took his career at the spread better from 2009 until he left in 2017.
Commenting on his appointment, Freetrade Founder and CEO Adam Dodds said: “I am pleased to welcome someone with such a wealth of private and public company experience in senior finance roles to our team. Paul’s expertise will be invaluable as we continue to scale our business and expand into new markets.”
Paul Brooking, CFO at Freetrade, added: “I’m thrilled to be joining such an exciting business at this important point in its growth. The team’s commitment to get everyone investing is inspiring. There is a real need for a product that offers low-cost and equitable access to global equity markets that, importantly, puts customers’ long-term best interest at the heart of everything we do.”
Freetrade in a hiring spree
Freetrade has gone into a hiring spree since it closed on a £50 million funding round back in March. The firm, which claims more than 600,000 customers, has used the Crowdcube platform many times to open its equity up to retail investors and raise fresh capital.
In 2020, London-based start-up made a record-breaking crowdfund in which it secured £1 million in just 77 seconds, also on Crowdcube. This then got a significant top up after Freetrade raised a total of £5 million across two further crowdfunding rounds which were notably in the firm’s very first crowdfunding attempt back in 2016.
In 2019, they raised $15 million, including a Series A led by venture capital firm, Draper Esprit.
Rather than partnering with an established broker, Freetrade holds a ‘full scope firm’ license from the FCA.
Freetrade, which calls itself a challenger stockbroker, has rebuilt its platform infrastructure for investing to allow traders to place their instant orders without having to pay a commission fee. Before that, clients were allowed to invest in stocks and ETFs, but only if they accept to execute their trades at the end of business day, otherwise the broker charges £1 per trade.
Freetrade’s app offers commission-free stock investment and is targeted mainly at millennials. The company has recently accelerated both new investments and product range, including the introduction of fractional shares.
