Wellington-founded shares buying app Sharesies has recruited Sydney-based Jacki Neumann as its new head of capital markets.
Neumann previously held roles at UBS Australia and Deutsche Bank Australia.
Sharesies’ country manager for Australia, Wade Ranford, said he expected Neumann’s capital markets experience and established relationships with Australian companies to help the company expand its business services in Australia.
He said Sharesies now administered a total of more than $10 billion in platform assets and was continuing to grow in Australia.
Sharesies offers online access to stock-markets in Australia, New Zealand and the US. The company’s platform includes functions such as auto-invest and round-up purchasing.
Sharesies says it has more than 110,000 individual investor customers in Australia out of a total of 860,000.
In addition to providing its retail investor platform, Sharesies administers employee share schemes and provides capital markets and registry services to over 600 listed and private companies. Sharesies also offers an investor relations platform through which businesses can communicate with retail investors and employee shareholders.
Sharesies was founded in New Zealand in 2019 but quickly expanded its services to Australia. Auckland-based Icehouse Ventures and New Zealand online sales platform Trade Me were early investors.
In December 2020, Sharesies raised $NZ25 million, including $NZ4 million from Houston-based impact investment firm Amplo which had been an early investor in US shares purchasing platform Robinhood. Icehouse Ventures supported that round along with high-net-worth individual New Zealand investors. In October 2021, Amplo led a $NZ50 million capital raising round. In early 2022, Ngāi Tahu Holdings, the investment arm of New Zealand’s largest iwi − Māori community organisation − invested $NZ3 million in Sharesies.
Image: Jacki Neumann, Sharesies new head of capital markets.