Gmail founder, ex-Morgan Stanley, Citibank execs join Malaysian fintech firm’s $7m round

Malaysian-based fintech platform Gotrade announced it has raised US$7 million in its seed round led by LocalGlobe, a VC firm based in London.

Investors including Social Leverage, Picus Capital, and Raptor Group participated in the funding round. Gmail creator Paul Buchheit, former Deutsche Postbank CEO Frank Strauss, former Morgan Stanley Investment Management Asia CEO Samuel Rhee, and former Citibank managing director Thomas Kang also chipped in.

The Gotrade team / Photo credit: Gotrade

Founded in 2019, Gotrade allows users to invest in US stocks, neither charging them commission nor requiring a minimum deposit size. Users from 150 countries can buy fractional shares in companies on the Dow Jones, S&P 500, and Nasdaq starting from US$1.

In a bid to increase safety for users, Gotrade said it works only with fully funded cash accounts with no margin facility. It does not facilitate trading in penny stocks or options trading. On its platform, users can make a maximum of three-day trades every five trading days for accounts under US$25,000.

The company is protected by the Securities Investor Protection Corporation (SIPC), which covers user accounts up to US$500,000. In addition, all money invested through the platform flows through counterparties regulated in Singapore through Rapyd and in the US through Alpaca and First Republic Bank.

See also: This Indonesian fintech startup bagged $60m, but is yet to fully cash in on its product