Capital fintech launches free shares for members

From left: Money Dashboard's Max Thomas, Jossie Ellis, Steve Tigar and Tim Shields. Picture: Stewart Attwood

The personal finance app has reserved one million free shares for customers who are part of its membership scheme, which it said could translate to “significant value” upon a successful future sale of the company, after more than 10,000 customers claimed member shares during a week-long pilot in January.

Money Dashboard said that the move actively invites all of its customers to join its membership community as, for a limited time, new users will automatically be reserved a place in the share scheme when they sign up to the app.

Referral rewards will also be in place, providing members with the opportunity to multiply their shares by inviting friends and family, and therefore increase their stake in the business.

The scheme is part of the company’s overarching ambition to create a “more transparent and fair financial landscape”, while also reaching new customers.

It added that it is “actively planning a significant capital raise” during the first half of the year.

The platform has raised over £10 million in equity financing to date and in 2017 completed a £1.4m crowdfunding round via the Crowdcube platform.

Chief executive Steve Tigar said the fintech sector is starting to benefit from last year’s introduction of Open Banking, which enables participants to share financial data with relevant authorised parties to help improve their understanding of their finances.

He said: “A year after coming into play, Open Banking has had a relatively slow start but we are now starting to see signs of innovation moving the needle in the sector.

“Money Dashboard is an early pioneer in terms of the UK fintech scene, we have tonnes of ambition to be one of the sector’s next success stories and our member share giveaway is about putting our users at the heart of everything we do and allowing them to share in our success.”

The fintech reported a record performance in 2018, which involved adding a “fast-growing” revenue stream in the form of anonymised consumer spending insights.

It also expanded its footprint by launching a London office and boosted overall head count to 20 staff.

In December, Money Dashboard announced the launch of a new platform in partnership with price comparison site GoCompare. The tie-up followed previous data-sharing partnerships with Monzo and Starling Bank.

Launched in 2010 by fintech entrepreneur Gavin Littlejohn, the app has since grown to serve more than 200,000 users.