Stake (platform)

Financial services company (e. 2017)

Not to be confused with Stake.com.

Stakeshop Pty Ltd

Logo of the Stake online brokerage platform (hellostake.com) since September 2021

Company type| Privately held company
Industry|

* Financial Services

Founded| April 1, 2017; 6 years ago (2017-04-01) in Sydney, Australia
Founder|

* Matthew Leibowitz
* Dan Silver

Headquarters|

Sydney

Australia

Area served

* Australia
* New Zealand
* United Kingdom

Key people

* Jon Howie (CEO)
* Matthew Leibowitz (Founder)
* Dan Silver (Co-Founder)
* Geoff Lloyd (Chairman)

Services|

* Financial services

Number of employees

| 121 (2023)
Website| https://hellostake.com/

Stake is an Australian financial services company headquartered in Sydney, Australia. It was founded in 2017 by Matt Leibowitz, Dan Silver and Jon Abitz. Stake predominately offers low-cost brokerage services to retail investors in Australia, New Zealand, Brazil and the United Kingdom.

As of February 2022, Stake had over 450,000 users, making it the third-largest online broker in Australia.[1]

## History[edit]

Stake was created in 2017[2] to enable Australians to trade shares on the NYSE and NASDAQ, which at the time was a novelty in Australia.[3] The company was created by Matt Leibowitz, a former partner in the derivatives trading firm Optiver,[4] and Dan Silver.

In 2019, Stake raised $AU 3.5 million from Ellemby Capital and its chairman, Brazilian entrepreneur and investor Sergio Kulikovsky.[5] The company claimed to be trading profitably at this time.[6]

As a low-cost broker targeted towards retail investors, Stake played a pivotal role in the GameStop short squeeze in Australia. Following coverage on the GameStop saga on media and social media, thousands of investors joined the Stake platform to participate in GameStock trading. On 28 January 2021, Stake reported tech outages as a result of a sudden increase in new users.[7][8] On 1 February 2021, US broker-dealer DriveWealth significantly raised its capital requirements for trading in the GameStop stock in an attempt to tame the wild fluctuations in price.[9] Since DriveWealth is Stake's broker partner, Stake was forced to stop trading in Gamestop.[10]

In May 2021, Stake raised an additional $AU 40 million from Tiger Global Management[11] and DST Global[12] to expand into other markets.

In November 2021, Stake was recognised as the 7th fastest growing company in Australia.[13]

In December 2021, Stake launched the ability for the Australian public to trade shares on the ASX and Chi-x.[14]

In April 2022, Stake announced that it had raised a further $AU 50 million from Tiger Global Management and DST Global to complete its Series A funding.[15] At this time, Stake reported that it had $AU 2 billion in assets under management and was generating $AU 20 million in revenue per year.[16]

In May 2023, Stake announced the appointment of a new chairman Geoff Lloyd, former chief executive of Perpetual Limited and National Australia Bank's MLC Wealth.[17]

In July 2023, Stake appointed Jon Howie as their new Chief Commercial Officer, coming from previous roles at BlackRock APAC, Macquarie Bank and iShares Australia.[18]

The Australian investment platform launched Extended Hours Trading for the U.S. markets in December 2023. This new product allows investors more flexibility for investors to engage in the markets on their own schedule, with nine hours of additional access per trading day.[19]

Stake appointed Jon Howie to the role of CEO in early 2024, to lead the business into its next chapter of growth. Jon believes Stake is “an amazing business, driven by a clear mission to deliver better outcomes for ambitious investors.”

In 2023, Stake saw a AU$1bn increase in assets under administration, a 20% increase in trading volume across the Australian market and 10% year-on-year increase in active customers.

The latest figures show that the company now has over A$3bn in assets under administration. Matt Leibowitz remains at Stake as Founder and Executive Director.[20]

## References[edit]

1. ^ "Budget broker Stake snares 54,000 ASX traders". Australian Financial Review. 2022-01-06. Retrieved 2022-02-02.
2. ^ "Aussie company Stake lets you trade US shares from your phone – opening up Wall Street for your trading side hustle". Business Insider Australia. 2019-10-17. Retrieved 2022-02-04.
3. ^ "Cut the cost of trading international shares". www.intheblack.com. Retrieved 2022-02-02.
4. ^ White, Louis (2018-10-30). "Stake's Founder Threw In A Highly Paid Job To Start An Investment App". GQ. Retrieved 2022-02-04.
5. ^ Koehn, Emma (2019-08-04). "'Be your own hedge fund': Investment startup Stake raises $3.5m". The Sydney Morning Herald. Retrieved 2022-02-02.
6. ^ Koehn, Emma (2019-08-04). "'Be your own hedge fund': Investment startup Stake raises $3.5m". The Sydney Morning Herald. Retrieved 2022-02-02.
7. ^ Vickovich, Aleks (January 29, 2021). "Online broker Stake crashes amid Reddit trading frenzy". Australian Financial Review. Retrieved February 2, 2022.
8. ^ Kruger, Colin (2021-01-31). "Stake scrambles to fix outage triggered by GameStop trade frenzy". The Sydney Morning Herald. Retrieved 2022-02-02.
9. ^ Kruger, Colin (2021-02-02). "Local broker Stake forced to suspend GameStop trading". The Sydney Morning Herald. Retrieved 2022-02-02.
10. ^ Kruger, Colin (2021-02-02). "Local broker Stake forced to suspend GameStop trading". The Sydney Morning Herald. Retrieved 2022-04-29.
11. ^ "Tiger Global-backed startup brings $2 brokerage to Australia". euronews. 2021-09-13. Retrieved 2022-02-04.
12. ^ Waters, Cara (2021-05-17). "Aussie trading app Stake rebounds after GameStop frenzy with $40m raising". The Sydney Morning Herald. Retrieved 2022-02-02.
13. ^ "The fastest growing start-ups in Australia". Australian Financial Review. 2021-11-28. Retrieved 2022-02-02.
14. ^ Purcell, Kylie (2021-09-15). "Stake launches $3 ASX stock trades – is it the cheapest trading app? | Finder". finder.com.au. Retrieved 2022-02-04.
15. ^ "Australian fintech Stake raises a further $50 million as it gears up to launch crypto trading". SmartCompany. 2022-04-27. Retrieved 2022-04-29.
16. ^ "Stake shrugs off global rout with $90m funding round". Australian Financial Review. 2022-04-26. Retrieved 2022-04-29.
17. ^ "Ex-Perpetual, MLC boss appointed to chair neo-broker Stake". Australian Financial Review. 2023-06-04. Retrieved 2023-10-11.
18. ^ FinTech, Australian (2023-08-16). "Stake appoints Jon Howie as Chief Commercial Officer to accelerate innovation for ambitious investors". Australian FinTech. Retrieved 2023-10-11.
19. ^ "Extended Hours: After Hours and Pre-Market Trading". Stake. Retrieved 2024-01-18.
20. ^ "Stake appoints new CEO as it scales to greater heights". Stake. 2024-01-12. Retrieved 2024-01-18.

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