Serial entrepreneur Perry Blacher is joining UK-based commission-free brokerage Freetrade as a non-executive director, with a view to becoming chairman pending regulatory approval, the firm announced today.
Freetrade said that its mission has always been to get everyone investing. To do that, the company designed and built an app, created its own brokerage platform and provided its customers with commission-free trading.
“Making all of this happen has been a challenge but having a great team, with decades of combined experience in tech and finance, is what made it possible. That’s why we’re so pleased Perry is joining us,” the firm said its statement.
Aside from founding Covestor, a robo-advisor company, and having been a successful fintech entrepreneur with three successful exits, Blacher has become a VC, as well as a board member and advisor to various companies, ranging from financial institutions to tech firms and fintech.
“Most importantly, he is a community member himself: an early crowdfunding investor in Freetrade and an avid user,” Freetrade noted.
Blacher’s view
In a Q&A with Freetrade, Blacher said that he first heard about the firm in late 2017 and loved the concept. He invested himself personally in a Crowdcube funding round as he felt that the business has the potential to be transformative for UK retail investing.
“Freetrade is all about the people. I was engaged by the mission of the founders, the quality of the team and the passion of the community,” he named as the main reason to join Freetrade’s board.
The last stock he bought on Freetrade was Amazon, Blacher said in the interview.
(Photo: Freetrade)
