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It’s a common refrain that if it wasn’t for VC funding growth at all costs, apps such as Robinhood or
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| May 31 · Issue #27 · View online |
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It’s a common refrain that if it wasn’t for VC funding growth at all costs, apps such as Robinhood or Acorns would not be able to sustain their commission models. But when you dig a little bit deeper into exactly how brokerage firms really make money, I believe that premise starts to fall apart. I recently spent a few hours going through E-Trade’s 10k to get a better understanding of their business model, and found something that was surprising to me - trade commissions only makes up ~18% of total net revenue. E-trade’s revenue concentration looks just like a traditional retail deposit-taking bank. E-Trade holds a significant amount of customer cash and deposits on it’s balance sheet, and like a bank tries to generate a return on these assets that is higher than the interest rate it pays. E-trade’s net revenue is generated primarily from net interest income, commissions and fees and service charges. Net interest income is largely impacted by the size of its balance sheet, balance sheet mix, and average yields on assets and liabilities. By the end of 2017, E-Trade had $42.7B in consumer deposits, representing 76% of total liability on their balance sheet. Out of 2017’s $2.4B in rev, $1.48B was net interest income (over 60%). E-trade’s market cap is currently trading at a $16.42B. When put into that light, Robinhood’s $5b valuation doesn’t seem so crazy - giving up commission fee revenue looks much more like customer acquisition cost. They’ve experience a massive amount of explosive growth (<4MM brokerage accounts which is already more than E-Trade). I also wouldn’t be surprised if future products will be focused around growing customer deposits + offering banking services. Platforms such as Acorns and Robinhood are also experimenting with a variety of new revenue streams. I would imagine if they ever went public, the road show KPIs for health of the business would be different from what E-Trade tracks. I pulled down a list below of what’s important to E-Trade, and it’s a pretty stark different from the numbers that a company such as Acorns reports publicly. I believe that 2018 and 2019 will see an increasingly convergence of larger scale fintech applications competing for customer deposits. It will be interesting to see how fintech upstarts compete with larger financial institutions (oh hi Marcus) in the product arena… Notes:
2017 eTrade revenue -
$2.4 B in total net revenue
$1.485 B in net interest income
$441 mm in commissions (interesting that commission revenue decreased from 2016 even as DARTs increased…)
3.6 MM brokerage accounts
2016 eTrade revenue:
$1.9B in total net revenue
$1.23B in net interest income
$442 mm in commissions
3.5 MM brokerage accounts
E-Trade KPIs-
Daily Average Revenue Trade (DART): predominant driver of commissions revenue, the average trades per day that generate commissions or fees.
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Derivative DARTs: key driver of commissions revenue, is the daily average number of options and futures trades
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Average commission per trade: indicator of changes in customer mix, product mix, and product pricing.
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Net new brokerage accounts: indicator of ability to attract and retain brokerage customers
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Customer margin balances: key driver of net interest income, represents credit extended to customers to finance their purchases of securities by borrowing against securities they own
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Customer assets: indicator of the value of relationship with the customer
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Brokerage related cash: indicator of the level of engagement with brokerage customers and is a key driver of net interest income as well as fees and service charges revenue
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Net new brokerage assets: indicator of the use of products and services by new and existing brokerage customers
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Acorns hits 3.5 million users, sees 100,000 sign-ups for retirement product in its first month – TechCrunch
Billed as an automated investment manager for the people, Acorns is off to a blistering start with its new retirement account service picking up 100,000 accounts in its first month. See above
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Ant Financial Said To Close $150B Funding Round
Ant Financial, the payment affiliate of Chinese e-commerce giant Alibaba, will soon become the world’s highest valued private tech company. Over/under for when Ant Financial acquires a company to expand internationally? My bet is in the next year, large acquisition of an international digital POS company like Bread or Poynt.
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Tradeshift raises $250M Series E, Goldman Sachs joins the round – TechCrunch
Tradeshift, a supply chain payments and marketplaces late-stage startup which recently added blockchain to its armory, has today raised $250 million in a Series E funding round led by Goldman Sachs and Public Sector Pension Investment Board (PSP Investments). Additional participation comes from HSBC, H14, GP Bullhound and Gray Swan, a new venture company established by Tradeshift’s founders. The new round of financing brings Tradeshift’s total funding to more than $400 million. The company claims it’s valuation has now passed $1.1 billion. B2B Fintech is in right now.
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Goldman Sachs presentation
Page 14 - Offering simple, transparent products to save, spend, borrow, and protect. Insight into potential future product areas for Marcus.
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Making Sense of Mortgages: The Problem, and the Opportunity – Andreessen Horowitz
Owning a home has long been a pillar of the American dream, but very few people fully understand the mortgage that powers it. How does a mortgage originated by a broker in California end up on the books of the Singapore sovereign wealth fund, with the homeowner sending her monthly checks to Ohio? And why does it still take 45 days to close? The entire process is complex, opaque, and downright anachronistic. Yet we continue to complacently accept this reality, despite living in an on-demand age where we expect more speed, transparency, and ease of use. Great overview of the opportunities in mortgage.
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Jamie Dimon Is Not Messing Around
The JPMorgan Chase CEO rushes to turn his bank into Amazon before Amazon turns into a bank. JPMorgan Chase has made a ton of progress, trying to bring tech forward.
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Online lender Kabbage to launch payment services by year-end
Kabbage Inc, a U.S. online lender for small businesses, plans to launch payment processing services by year-end, President Kathryn Petralia said on Monday, helping it to diversify and compete more directly with industry leaders PayPal Holdings Inc (PYPL.O) and Square Inc (SQ.N). Everyone competing with everyone else in SMB payments/lending.
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Cryptocurrency Firms Explore Getting Bank Licenses - WSJ
Coinbase and another cryptocurrency firm talked to U.S. regulators about the possibility of obtaining banking licenses, a move that would allow the startups to broaden the types of products they offer. Coinbase playing the long-game - would be really interest in coinbase moves into other retail products like personal lending backed by crypto (and their massive revenues).
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