Robo-adviceApr 27 2021

Nutmeg surpasses £3bn in assets

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Nutmeg surpasses £3bn in assets
Jason Alden/Bloomberg

Nutmeg surpassed £3bn in assets under management during the first quarter of this year.

The firm saw a 53 per cent increase in clients to more than 130,000, compared with the same period in 2020. Net inflows for the first quarter of 2021 increased by 230 per cent.

But Nutmeg is still loss-making. In a statement this morning, the company said it has seen revenue growth of 66 per cent as it "moves closer to profitability", but did not provide specific figures for how big its losses were.

Losses at the robo-adviser widened to more than £21m in 2019, an increase on the £18.4m loss the firm reported for 2018. It was the eighth year in a row losses at the company, which has never made a profit, had widened.

A spokesperson for Nutmeg, which is backed by Schroders, said losses were reduced by 30 per cent over 2020 but did not provide figures. 

Neil Alexander, chief executive of Nutmeg, said: “With interest rates at historically low levels, and looking set to stay there for the foreseeable future, many people have either turned to investing for the first time or increased the amount they invest.

"Nutmeg has been a beneficiary of this shift, welcoming tens of thousands of seasoned investors wanting to take advantage of a digital-first wealth management service, along with first-time investors looking for the support they receive from our wealth services team in helping them to achieve their financial goals.  
 
“With the FCA recently cautioning investors about the high risks associated with speculative short-term stock-picking – as highlighted by the meme stocks phenomenon – and the volatility of cryptoassets, we continue to work hard to make sure that investors don’t lose sight of longer-term financial goals and the investment strategies that will allow them to achieve these.”  

The UK robo-advice market, which had become increasingly crowded, has seen several participants close their doors recently after they failed to perform as well as expected.

Earlier this year Scalable Capital said it would no longer serve retail customers directly in the UK, instead consolidating its wealth business into one platform in Germany. 

In May 2019 Investec closed its Click and Invest robo-advice business following two years of losses, while Moola shut its doors in January last year.

sally.hickey@ft.com