The UK investment and wealth management landscape is set to see a new challenger in the shape of Sidekick, a fintech startup co-founded by former Pariti founder Matthew Ford, which has raised £3.33 million in pre-seed funding ahead of a launch next year.
Sidekick is aiming to close the generational wealth gap by offering products and services typically reserved for only high-net-worth individuals, including access to alternative investments, such as crypto, and the ability to borrow against these investment portfolios.
The funding round, which was led by Ocotopus Ventures with participation from Seedcamp and Semantic, is being used to build out the app-based product, expand the in-house asset management team, and secure the required regulatory permissions and registrations.
The company was co-founded by serial entrepreneur Matthew Ford (CEO) and Peter Townsend (CTO). Ford previously founded the mobile banking platform Pariti, where Townsend was CTO, which was sold to Tandem Bank in 2018. They’re joined at Sidekick by a wider founding team from traditional asset management, consumer credit and fintech backgrounds.
Says Ford: “Most retail investors have two options to build wealth: settle for passive portfolios or try to time the market and pick stocks and crypto themselves without access to the training, tools and information needed to do this effectively. This funding will allow us to build a modern app-based investment service that gives customers the same professional expertise that only high-net-worth individuals are used to. We’ve already got a stellar team in place, and we’re now excited to be working towards regulatory approval to launch over the coming months.”
Siddekick has applied to the FCA for authorisation and expects to launch in 2023.