MONTREAL — When Wealthsimple announced the sale of its U.K. business last week, it was another sign the Toronto-based fintech was having trouble competing abroad, after it exited the U.S. earlier this year. According to a new filing, the decision to leave the U.K. came after its losses there grew by roughly a quarter last year—totalling just over $7 million in 2020.
Here’s what else we learned about Wealthsimple’s Brexit:
MONTREAL — When Wealthsimple announced the sale of its U.K. business last week, it was another sign the Toronto-based fintech was having trouble competing abroad, after it exited the U.S. earlier this year. According to a new filing, the decision to leave the U.K. came after its losses there grew by roughly a quarter last year—totalling just over $7 million in 2020.
Here’s what else we learned about Wealthsimple’s Brexit:
Wealthsimple’s U.K. business grew its client base by 66 per cent last year. Its assets under management also grew by 120 per cent year over year, according to audited figures including in Friday’s filing with Companies House. It had revealed last week that it transferred 16,000 clients to Moneyfarm in the sale, along with about $460 million in assets. That accounted for just 0.8 per cent of its total client base, and roughly three per cent of its total assets. The U.K. has a far more competitive fintech landscape than Canada does, with larger incumbents such as Revolut and Monzo. That likely presented a challenge for Wealthsimple, which expanded to the U.K. in 2017.
It lost almost $7.2 million on its U.K business in 2020, up 26.2 per cent from $5.7 million in 2019. Its revenue was $1.36 million, up 204.9 per cent from $447,345 in 2019. “For the fiscal year from 2019 to 2020 the business remained focused on growing its client base and assets under management with investments in technology infrastructure, user experience and customer acquisition,” said Caroline Murphree, Wealthsimple’s CEO for Europe, in a statement to The Logic Friday.
Though the sale was announced last week, Wealthsimple made the decision to unwind its U.K. operations in June, and the company began laying off its 20 full-time employees shortly afterwards, the filing shows. The company’s board of directors approved the sale to Moneyfarm in August.
Also of note in the filing are some details it reveals about the sale. The deal with Moneyfarm was for “the greater of £1.0 million or a percentage of the assigned cash value of accounts transferred,” though in response to The Logic’s question Friday, Wealthsimple declined to say which was greater. Wealthsimple’s U.K. entity also sold some of its intellectual property to a company it described in the filing as having the same ultimate parent as itself: Power Financial Corporation.
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Photo: The Canadian Press/Nathan Denette
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