Octopus Ventures is a venture capital firm that offers support to companies at various stages of their journey, from idea conception to IPO. They allocate over £200 million annually to invest in sectors such as health, fintech, deep tech, consumer, and B2B software, with a focus on making a positive impact. Their experienced team assists portfolio companies in scaling rapidly. Octopus Ventures' investment philosophy extends beyond monetary support, involving time, energy, and focus to work closely with founders for success. Notable companies they have backed include ManyPets, Cazoo, Depop, Elvie, and WaveOptics. Their operations span London and New York, with a network of partners in the U.S. and Asia.

Octopus Ventures

Seedcamp is Europe's seed fund, identifying and investing early in world-class founders attacking large, global markets and solving real problems using technology. The Seedcamp Nation includes over 400 startups building breakout businesses that change the way people live, interact and buy and includes publicly listed UiPath, Wise, and unicorns Revolut, Hopin, Sorare, Pleo, and wefox along with fast-growing businesses such as Grover, viz.ai and Ezra.  Seedcamp fast-tracks a founder's vision and creates value through immediate access to smart capital, a lifelong community of support and a global network built upon more than a decade's experience backing exceptional talent. Seedcamp fast-tracks a founder's vision and creates value through immediate access to smart capital, a lifelong community of support, and a global network built upon more than a decade's experience backing exceptional talent.

Seedcamp

Semantic Ventures is a venture capital fund that invests in open markets and networks. It was founded in 2017 and is headquartered in London, England.

Semantic Ventures

TheVentureCity is a global early-stage venture fund, investing in product-centric startups across the US, Europe, and Latam. With more than $150M under management, the firm invests from pre-seed and seed with a ticket size from $100-500k to Series A with $1-4M.

TheVentureCity

PactVC

MS&AD Ventures is an early-stage venture fund focused on big data businesses related to the insurance industry. It specializes in the fields of venture capital, financial services, and finance. It was founded in 2018 and headquartered in Menlo Park, California.

MS&AD Ventures

1818 Venture Capital invests in early-stage UK and Middle East-based fintech companies.

1818 Venture Capital

BlackWood is a network and technology-driven early stage venture capital fund and community of investors sharing a passion for driving advancements in Fintech, Cleantech, and Web 3.0/AI — while earning a solid risk-adjusted return. BlackWood is more than a traditional VC; it is a platform for supercharging innovation. We are committed to being the best partners and catalysts for revolutionary companies and pioneering entrepreneurs.

BlackWood Ventures

Sidekick

Sidekick is a wealth management firm that offers access to alternative investments as well as the ability to borrow against these portfolios. Sidekick provides an innovative suite of products, including stocks and cryptocurrency, as well as a funding line for customers to borrow against their portfolios when necessary. Customers will have access to the Sidekick investment team, which will provide regular updates on portfolio performance as well as share editorial content to help customers build their investment knowledge as they progress.

Sidekick Money is a UK-based financial services company founded in 2023. It offers a range of financial products and services aimed at providing access to investment opportunities typically associated with high-net-worth individuals. The company operates primarily through a mobile application, offering savings accounts, investment portfolios, alternative investments, and borrowing options. In June 2024, the company obtained full regulatory permissions from the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) and launched its flagship actively managed equities product.

Retail investors demanding sophisticated passive investment strategies are looking for an edge.

Retail Trading Infrastructure

SideKick

Sidekick Money is a UK-based financial services company founded in 2023. It offers a range of financial products and services aimed at providing access to investment opportunities typically associated with high-net-worth individuals. The company operates primarily through a mobile application, offering savings accounts, investment portfolios, alternative investments, and borrowing options. In June 2024, the company obtained full regulatory permissions from the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) and launched its flagship actively managed equities product.Sidekick's savings product is an instant access savings account with a base interest rate of 4.34% AER (variable). The account offers potential bonuses of up to 1%, which could increase the total interest rate to 5.34% AER. These bonuses are tied to specific conditions, such as maintaining a balance up to GBP 85,000 and investing in Sidekick's investment portfolios.Sidekick offers alternative investments, specifically venture capital trusts (VCTs), which provide exposure to early-stage UK companies. These VCTs are growth-focused investment products that may also pay dividends. The minimum investment for VCTs through Sidekick is GBP 3,000, and they are only available to sophisticated and high-net-worth investors.

Ellevest is a hybrid investment management platform that specifically targets women, with an algorithm that takes into account gender-specific factors such as career breaks, longer life expectancy, and income differences.Ellevest offers a single plan at USD 12 per month. This plan includes investing and educational resources as well as up to 50% off all financial planning sessions. Unlike some investing companies that charge separate advisory fees based on a percentage of invested assets, Ellevest incorporates investment advice into the plan fee. For clients with USD 1 million or more to invest, Ellevest provides Private Wealth Management services with fees based on total assets under management, covering both financial planning and investment management. The company's investment portfolios incur fund fees or expense ratios, which are built into the purchase price of investments. For Ellevest core (non-Impact) portfolios, ETF fund fees range from 0.05% to 0.10% per year, while Ellevest Impact Portfolios have ETF and mutual fund fees ranging from 0.13% to 0.19% per year.Ellevest reported assets under management (AUM) of USD 2 billion as of March 2024.

Ellevest

ComposedPro is a digital investment advisor that handles clients’ investment accounts at their employers (such as employer-sponsored accounts) as well as private investment accounts, focusing on low cost Employer-Coordinated Portfolios. The company oversees USD 25 million in total assets over 181 customer accounts as of the company’s Q2 2020 filing. ComposedPro manages half of the company’s accounts on a discretionary basis, meaning an investment advisor has the discretion to make buy and sell decisions for a client’s account. ComposedPro also has 46 non-discretionary accounts totalling USD 7.9 million in assets. The average investment account size is USD 138,222 placed across exchangeable assets such as exchange-traded funds (ETFs), equities, bonds, and options.

ComposedPro

Guideline provides automated investment management services for employer-sponsored retirement accounts. The services also include plan set-up and administration, enrollment and education, recordkeeping, compliance with Retirement Income Security Act, and reporting.The company stated that it is the only provider that does not charge plan participants (i.e. employees) with any fees. Guideline charges the employers with a straightforward pricing of one flat fee per participant, in contrast to the asset-based fee model predominant in the industry (i.e. fee is charged on account balances).Guideline offers three subscription tiers for a 401(k) plan service: Starter, Core, and Enterprise. The Starter plan costs USD 39/month plus USD 4/month per active participant, offering basic features with a USD 6,000 employee contribution limit. The Core plan, priced at USD 89/month plus USD 8/month per active participant, provides more robust features including a USD 23,000 employee contribution limit, Safe Harbor or Traditional 401(k) options, employer contributions, and profit-sharing capabilities. The Enterprise plan, at USD 149/month, offers the most customization with exclusive pricing options, premium support, and access to Participant Perks. The higher tiers incrementally add features such as flexible plan design, vesting schedules, 401(k) loans, and support for plan transfers. All plans include basic administration services, while the Enterprise tier provides additional benefits like dedicated support, priority assistance, and exclusive pricing options.Key customers and partnershipsAs of August 2024, the company had invested USD 15 billion dollars for retirements.

Guideline

Based in Plano, Texas, AssetBuilder is a robo-advisory company that develops investment portfolios based on the Fama/French school of thought, using low-cost active index funds. It has Dimensional Fund Advisors (the eighth largest fund company in the world as of September 2019) as its funding partner. Human advisors are available to provide investing guidance. As of April 2019, the firm’s assets under management (AUM) amounted to USD 765.9 million. The firm’s business model relies on a fee-only structure, meaning a customer solely pays AssetBuilder to create and manage investments (the company does not receive product-specific commission). The minimum investment for AssetBuilder is USD 50,000 with an asset management fee ranging from 0.24% to 0.45%; the higher the investment, the lower the fee. Though the firm does not have a setup fee, it requires a custodial cost for setting up a portfolio of USD 11.95 per trade for each recommended mutual fund. Most of the platform’s portfolios require about 11 to 14 mutual funds, costing about USD 131.45 to USD 167.30 to open an account.

AssetBuilder

Based in Canada, Smart Money Invest provides portfolio management services to individual clients, advisors, and employers (such as group saving plans for retirement). Human advisors are available to serve individual investors.The company provides financial tools to develop a long-term financial strategy by calculating net worth, setting a budget, managing investment accounts, and planning for retirement.

Smart Money Invest

Robo advisory startups that offer automated investment services directly to individuals solely via digital platforms.

Robo advisory startups that offer automated investment services to individuals via both digital platforms and human financial advisors.

Provide solutions for financial advisors/asset managers to automate wealth management and administration functions.

Robo advisory startups that offer automated investment services to businesses via both digital platforms and human financial advisors.

Provides solutions for financial institutions to set up their own robo-advisory function and offer services to clients.

Startups that offer online platforms for investors to trade various securities such as stocks, ETFs, and options directly via the platform

Operates a B2B SaaS model to support financial institution in offering various investment related services

Leverages AI/ML to automate allocation and management of investment funds to cater to retail investors

ANALYST_QUICK_TAKE

<div>
 
 London-based robo-advisory platform, Sidekick, has secured GBP 8.5 million (~USD 10.3 million) in funding. This comprises GBP 4.5 million (~USD 5.7 million) in seed funding and GBP 4 million (~USD 5.1 million) via a debt facility. The seed funding round was co-led by Pact VC and TheVentureCity and saw participation from MS&amp;AD, Blackwood, 1818, among others. With this, Sidekick's total funding has reached GBP 11.8 million (~USD 15 million).
 The funds will be used to expand the team, increase product offerings, and secure a European license.
 Sidekick has already obtained regulatory permissions from the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) and launched an actively managed equities offering in January.
 
</div> Analyst QuickTake: 
 In March, Sidekick announced the <a href="https: 
//www.fintechfutures.com/2024/03/uk-wealthtech-start-up-sidekick-debuts-new-wealth-management-app/"> full launch </a> of its platform, over a year after its <a href="https: 
//sp-edge.com/updates/14109"> pre-seed </a> fundraising of GBP 3.3 million (~USD 4.2 million) in October 2022. Sidekick’s recent funding also reiterates its focus on business growth through expanding investment offerings and plans to secure a European license to ensure compliance.

SideKick

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