Nick Hungerford: Nutmeg

Nick Hungerford, 34
Company: Nutmeg
Web: www.nutmeg.com

Almost out of nowhere, co-founder Nick Hungerford’s online wealth management platform Nutmeg has risen to become one of Europe’s hottest properties in FinTech – and it’s not difficult to see why. Its unique technology allows users to select their investment amount (£1,000 and upwards) and level of risk, with the Nutmeg web platform then automatically creating a tailored investment portfolio for them without any human intervention at all. This allows it to take on huge numbers of clients with comparatively few staff – the business already has 35,000 registered users, with customer acquisition in the first quarter of 2014 up 350% on the same time last year.

Hungerford’s start-up has already raised a staggering $50m investment across two years of existence, which includes a $32m injection from leading venture capitalists including Carphone Warehouse founder Charles Dunstone. It is no surprise to learn that Nutmeg made 2014’s prestigious FinTech 2014 index as one of the European tech start-ups most likely to transform the future of financial services – indeed, we may have witnessed the birth of a household name in finance.