The Direct group bought the investment platform Fondee, which has about 16,000 clients and is loss-making. According to his statement, he continues to expand financial services on the Czech and Polish markets and, through Fondee, also enters the Slovak market. The store is still subject to approval by the Czech National Bank, but nothing changes for the platform’s clients from a user point of view, and it should continue to operate under the leadership of its co-founders, Jan and Eva Hlavs.
In addition to the insurance company of the same name, the Direct group also includes the car dealer and service Direct auto and the company Fidoo, which offers financial services for small and medium-sized businesses. “Fondee will be the fourth pillar on which we will build our future,” he said server List of Messages Pavel Řehák, founder of Vigo Investments, which is financially behind the Direct group. Řehák recently opened the group to investors and is aiming for a turnover of 19 billion.
Fondee offers people the opportunity to put money into portfolios focused on shares and bonds, husband and wife Eva and Jan Hlavs founded it after they moved back to the Czech Republic seven years ago from London, where they gained experience working for global banks. In addition to them, the company has also been owned since last year by shareholder Tarpan Capital, associate Štěpán Pudlák, J&T Banka, which invested in the startup in 2020, and also the company Oaktree invest.
According to the recently published financial statements, last year Fondee increased revenues by a quarter to 5.6 million crowns, while at the same time reducing its loss by forty percent from 21 million to 12.4 million. “Last year was the first year in which the unfavorable situation on the financial markets began to turn,” commented Hlavsa. According to Řehák, the company could become profitable in the first quarter of next year.
Neither party wanted to comment on the price of the current transaction. “With the acquisition, Fondee enters the next phase of its life. He has seven startup years behind him, during which we managed to establish ourselves in the market for investing in ETF funds and grow to more than sixteen thousand clients and two other foreign markets.” says Hlavsa.
The founders themselves will remain in the company. “Now is the time to connect Fondee with a capital-strong player that will help fulfill our common goal of making ETF investing one of the most popular ways to invest.” he added.
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In July of this year, the CNB fined the investment platform 900,000 crowns for misconduct in providing services to customers. In the decomposition of the original decision, it reduced the penalty to half the original amount. Fondee made mistakes in the second half of 2021 and in 2022. The company said it wants to defend itself against the decision at the Court of Justice of the EU.
Direct was established in 2014 by an agreement on the transfer of one hundred percent of the shares of the insurance company Triglav. The group includes Direct insurance company, Direct auto, Direct foundation, leasing company Birne and the system for managing company expenses Fidoo. The financing of the group is provided by Vigo Investments, the investment company of Pavel Řehák, which he founded in 2013. The group has so far operated in the Czech Republic and Poland, and its total revenues for the year 2023 exceeded eight billion crowns.
With the contribution of CTK
