British stock trading app Freetrade has hired Paul Brooking as chief financial officer, according to a press release.
Brooking joins the startup from rival Revolut, the $33 billion fintech firm that offers stock trading alongside a range of other financial products, where he served as deputy CFO and head of financial control.
Prior to Revolut, Brooking worked at London-listed trading platform IG Group. Freetrade’s founder and CEO Adam Dodds said Brooking will bring “a wealth of private and public company experience in senior finance roles,” which he said would be “invaluable” as the startup expands into new markets.
One of those markets is crypto trading. The Block revealed in February that Freetrade was hiring a product manager to for a new crypto offering. Revolut, which at its core is a current account product, has offered crypto trading tools to customers since 2017.
The two London-based startups have a history of poaching from one another. Notably, Revolut hired former Freetrade co-founder and CTO André Mohamed to lead its wealth and trading product in January 2019 (he later left the company).
Launched in 2018, Freetrade claims to have grown both its funded customer accounts and revenue by four times in the 12 months up to August this year. The startup raised $69 million in March in a Series B round led by Left Lane Capital.
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