interactive investor is an online investment service in the United Kingdom, founded in 1995. It provides financial information, as well as investment tools. It is the UK's biggest flat-fee investment platform, with £36 billion of assets under administration, over 300,000 customers and more than one million users. The group is based in Manchester, with offices in London and Leeds.
History
Interactive Investor International was founded in 1994 by Sherry Coutu and funded by angel investors Richard Caruso and John Cooper, and the venture capital company, Arts Alliance. In 1995, Coutu hired Tomas Carruthers from ESI to bring trading capability and equities to supplement the company's fund-management information. Initially launched to provide front-end research to the investment community, it also provided a platform for investors to communicate through discussion boards. The name was changed to Interactive Investor following the company's withdrawal from the South African and Asian markets. The company has grown to be the UK's second-largest retail investment platform, with more than 300,000 customers and more than 7.4 million unique users per annum. It floated on the stock market in 2000 and was valued at £242 million. At the height of the dotcom boom it was valued at £684 million before it was bought by Australian financial services group AMP a year later. The investment platform briefly rebranded itself as Ample in 2002. The current interactive investor is a private limited company incorporated in 2003 and majority owned by funds advised by J.C. Flowers & Co, a leading private equity firm. ii first provided a dealing service in 2010, when it joined forces with Halifax Share Dealing, and went on to set up its own dealing function and customer service centre, based in Glasgow, in 2011. ii is 100% equity funded with no external debt and with corporate net assets of more than £100million.
Services and products
Through the company's direct-to-customer investing and trading service, investors can manage and trade shares, funds, investment trusts and bonds via trading accounts, ISAs and SIPPs. The platform also offers CFDs and spread betting accounts, as well as comprehensive market data. These services are supported by portfolio-tracking tools, investment filters, the Super 60 and ACE 30 lists of rated investments and a selection of ready-made investment options, as well as impartial, specialist news and research from its editorial team and personal finance magazines, and Money Observer. On 8 January 2020, ii introduced free regular investing and became the first of the big investment platforms to scrap its fee for the service.
Acquisitions
ii bought personal finance magazine Moneywise from Reader's Digest in 2004. This was followed by the acquisition of investment magazine Money Observer from Guardian Media Group in 2008. The broker joined forces with Motley Fool Share Dealing in 2015, replacing Halifax Share Dealing as the brand's service provider. In October 2016, ii acquired the European business of TD Direct Investing from its Canadian parent Toronto-Dominion Bank. With 300,000 UK customers, TD Direct was at the time larger than ii. The acquisition was completed in June 2017 and was financed by J.C. Flowers & Co, which became the majority shareholder in the group. In October 2018, ii announced a deal to buy Alliance Trust Savings, which was completed in July 2019 and brought together the two largest flat-fee online investment platforms.. In February 2020, ii announced its intention to acquire The Share Centre, an independent retail stockbroker. The acquisition was completed in July 2020.
