UK wealthtech Sidekick recently raised a combined £8.5million in a seed round, as it looks to expand its product lineup, scale its team and secure a European licence.
In this week’s Behind the Idea, Matt Ford, co-founder and CEO of Sidekick, takes us behind the scenes of the firm and breaks down its offering, evolution, as well as its biggest achievements and problems.
Ford previously founded personal finance startup Pariti, which Tandem Bank bought in 2018, and was most recently a partner at Mouro Capital, a global fintech venture capital fund.
Tell us more about your company and its offering
Matt Ford, co-founder and CEO of Sidekick
Sidekick is a next-gen wealth manager that unlocks access to the financial advantages of the ultra-wealthy. It has been built for entrepreneurs and hard-working professionals who are looking for a modern, more comprehensive, and sophisticated approach to wealth management.
Sidekick targets founders, tech workers, lawyers, and other hard-working professionals who want to do more with their money but are uncertain of the next steps as traditional wealth management providers aren’t able to meet their needs and aspirations. It leverages the latest tech advancements to provide financial strategies designed to maximise returns and navigate the ever-increasing complexities of financial markets.
Sidekick allows for the reimagining of investment products with tailored, personalised portfolios not currently possible within the constraints of a traditional mutual fund or ETF, at scale, for a wider group of investors. All this has normally just been preserved for the ultra-wealthy via their private banking and family office services.
What problem was your company set up to solve?
In the UK alone, where approximately one million individuals aspire to access financial services previously reserved for the elite, Sidekick’s modern approach to wealth management opens up access to exclusive investment opportunities, unique liquidity options, and alternative asset classes (coming soon), helping modern investors take control of their financial future.
While wealthy individuals have long had access to sophisticated wealth management tools, hard-working professionals outside of the top wealth bracket have been locked out of such services. At the same time, traditional wealth management providers are historic heel draggers and have been unable to adapt their solutions to meet their aspirations.
Sidekick has successfully broken through the monopoly of traditional incumbents in the financial sector. These incumbents, often slow to adapt to changing market demands and technological advancements, have maintained control over sophisticated financial products and services, restricting access to ultra-wealthy individuals.
Sidekick offers a modern approach to wealth management with tailored solutions that resonate with hard-working professionals and entrepreneurs who are actively seeking avenues to meaningfully grow their wealth.
How has your company evolved?
Since our pre-seed funding round of £3.3million in 2022, we’ve come a long way in a relatively short time. The pre-seed round, in combination with the tremendous support and advice from our network of angel investors, allowed us to obtain a unique set of regulatory permissions that no other provider in the UK has been able to combine, one that makes Sidekick stand apart.
Since attaining these regulatory permissions, we’ve publicly launched our flagship equity portfolio (actively managed in-house by our experienced investment team), our high-yield savings to help clients maximise the returns on their cash, and our Lombard lending product, enabling customers to borrow against their portfolio.
We recently raised £8.5million in a seed round to support our ambitious roadmap, which includes expanding our product lineup, obtaining our Continental European license, and scaling our team. This funding round will enable us to introduce new products, such as private equity and venture capital investments. Our current focus is scaling our user base before expanding internationally next year.
What has been the biggest challenge or most ‘tricky moment’ to overcome?
One of the biggest challenges for Sidekick was obtaining the regulatory permissions required to get the business off the ground. The FCA process was challenging and required substantial effort and diligence.
What Sidekick aims to build is vast. It required a unique set of lending and asset management permissions across asset classes. There isn’t another business in the UK with our unique combination of permissions for retail investors.
Building all the processes, governance, and tech and establishing the team up front is an exceptionally costly endeavour. With the support from early-stage investors who understood the scale of the challenge and the time needed to get to the starting line, we’ve managed to achieve this successfully.
It took 20 months to incorporate the company and become fully regulated, a timeline seen only by a rare breed of startups before they launch and fully validate their proposition to customers!
What are your biggest achievements so far?
One of our biggest achievements has been the expansion of our product offering. Our Flagship equity strategy is an actively managed growth-focused investment portfolio designed to outperform a benchmark.
We are the only wealth management service in the UK to offer a Portfolio Line of Credit, a Lombard lending product designed to help investors remain invested over the long term while providing access to liquidity when needed.
We’ve just launched high-yield savings, which offers Sidekick members up to 5.34 per cent AER (variable) in an instant access account. Offering a low-risk product with a high interest rate is just one of the many ways in which we’re helping our customers maximise their wealth potential. It’s been an exciting time for us, with many more developments lined up for the rest of the year.
How would you describe the culture of your company?
At Sidekick, we’ve built a diverse and unique team that combines experienced financial services specialists (including hedge fund managers and credit professionals) with consumer technologists. This combination enables us to tackle complex and challenging problems effectively.
Rather than striving for a homogenous working style and culture, which isn’t feasible or beneficial, we encourage everyone to be their best selves and work in ways that suit their backgrounds and expertise. Our team includes fully remote, hybrid, and full-time office employees, all united by a singular goal: addressing wealth creation inequity.
Although our working styles may vary, aligning our goals and collaboration methods ensures we have the right ingredients to tackle the problem we are all passionate about solving.
What’s in store for the future?
We want to broaden our range of products and services (including alternatives, more credit products, and lifestyle features) and extend our reach to welcome new clients. Additionally, we are actively pursuing licensing certification from significant players in Continental Europe to facilitate the expansion of our operations and service offerings.
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