It is with a heavy heart that we share with the community the departure of our CTO, Ian Fuller.
Ian has played a pivotal role in helping Freetrade grow into a truly disruptive force in the retail investment space. Back in 2018, with the support of only two awesome engineers, Ian willed the Freetrade product into existence, before leading on the release of other products that have been key to our continued success - from the stocks and shares ISA to the Android app to fractional shares to the Invest Platform.
All of these contributions drove our early breakout success, which have helped us evolve into the exciting business we are today.
After a year of astronomical growth, with customer numbers surging more than six-fold, portfolio sizes multiplying, trading volumes increasing, and Plus membership numbers forming the shape of a hockey stick, we are well positioned to continue to scale up across Europe and beyond. Our headcount has grown to over 100 and we are continuing to hire at an accelerated pace.
Along the way, Ian and the engineering leadership at Freetrade have built up a world-class engineering team with a strong belief in the importance of identifying the right talent for the right roles.
His contributions to our business cannot be overstated.
While we are very sorry to see him go, as someone who is passionate about early-stage opportunities, where he thrives, he will be moving onto another early-stage business where he will no doubt have the same impact for them as he has done for us.
As Ian himself said: “It has been an honour to help build and be part of the Freetrade team and in particular, to have worked with such talented engineers. The support and encouragement from our engaged community of customers and investors has been incredible. I’ll always be proud of my time at Freetrade and I can’t wait to see what happens next!”
Ian will remain a community member. We love him, we are sorry to see him go and, above all, we wish him a lot of success in his next ventures.
