Gotrade

Gotrade is a mobile brokerage brand owned by Gotrade Securities Inc. that gives retail investors outside the United States access to U.S. equity markets in fractional amounts starting at $1. The app covers more than 3,000 U.S. stocks listed on the NYSE and Nasdaq, along with ETFs, options, baskets of stocks and assets, and a yield product on idle cash advertised at up to 3.32% p.a. Fractional positions are eligible for dividends where paid, subject to withholding tax and a minimum payout threshold of one cent. Gotrade Securities Inc. is a securities licensee of the Labuan Financial Services Authority and works with a U.S.-regulated stockbroker that fractionalises the underlying shares.

The company operates a separate localized service, Gotrade Indonesia, built to comply with Indonesian rules that prevent local brokers from offering foreign securities directly. Rather than offering contracts for difference, Gotrade Indonesia routes customer funds to the Futures Clearing House of Indonesia and executes trades through Valbury Group, registering them on the Jakarta Futures Exchange under Bappebti oversight; the corresponding hedge is placed with Alpaca Securities LLC, a FINRA-licensed U.S. broker-dealer, creating a fully backed derivative position. Gotrade's app supports nine-decimal-place fractional shares, which the company says lets users take positions of $1 in high-priced stocks such as Tesla, Amazon or Google.

Founding story

Gotrade was founded in 2019 by Rohit Mulani, Norman Wanto and David Grant and took part in Y Combinator's Summer 2019 batch, with Gustaf Alstromer as primary partner. Norman Wanto is listed as founder and CEO in the Y Combinator profile, while Rohit Mulani was described as co-founder and CEO in 2022 press coverage.

Business model

Gotrade operates a direct-to-consumer mobile brokerage. It does not charge trading commissions; instead it earns a foreign exchange fee of 0.5% to 1.2% when users deposit funds in local currency that is converted to U.S. dollars for trading, a fee that also covers instant deposits so accounts do not need to be pre-funded. The company has additionally tested a subscription tier, Gotrade Black, priced at $2 per month for premium analytics features.

Revenue comes from foreign exchange spread on local-currency deposits (0.5%-1.2%) rather than trading commissions, supplemented by a tested $2/month premium membership tier (Gotrade Black).

Traction

By April 2022 Gotrade reported 500,000 users across more than 140 countries, roughly $400 million transacted across 5 million trades, and growth achieved without marketing spend. The company's site later cites more than 900,000 traders and investors, App Store and Google Play ratings of 4.7 across 370 and 13,500 reviews respectively, and access to over 3,200 U.S. stocks. Y Combinator lists a team size of 105.

Latest developments

The current product line-up spans U.S. stocks, ETFs, options, multi-asset baskets and a yield product on idle cash of up to 3.32% p.a., with more than 3,200 U.S. stocks available and over 900,000 traders and investors reported on the platform.