It began with a simple idea that changed everything: fractional share ownership. When Purple Group’s EasyEquities launched in 2014, the concept of letting ordinary South Africans buy slices of expensive shares wasn’t just novel — it was transformative. The idea came directly from the users themselves, as CEO Charles Savage recalls. “We ran a game and gave everyone R10,000 capital to invest, but they couldn’t buy Naspers, which was a R2,000 stock,” he says. “They didn’t want 20% of their portfolio in one share. They just wanted to diversify but couldn’t afford to. That was the insight.”
Savage turned to his team and made the call that would define EasyEquities: “We will not launch this business until we solve that problem.” After weeks of sleepless nights, he found his answer in the US market, where fractional shares had long existed — a result of corporate actions, tradable by phone, but lacking digital access. EasyEquities digitised it. “It’s the one thing I can say with 100% confidence: there would be no EasyEquities without fractional shares,” says Savage. “It established us as ‘the people’s brand’ — giving everyone a way into the market.”
What began as a platform to eliminate investor friction and broaden access to JSE-listed shares has now scaled into a full financial ecosystem. More than 10 years on, EasyEquities has more than 1-million active clients and more than R67bn in assets under custody. Savage admits the scale of success was unpredictable: “You could never have predicted that. It seems easy looking back, but I can tell by the amount of hair I have today versus 10 years ago — it hasn’t always been that easy.”
Launched during a bull market, EasyEquities benefited early on from favourable economic conditions: low interest rates, high asset prices and positive investor sentiment. But as Savage puts it: “Over the past few years, interest rate hikes and inflationary pressure have squeezed retail investors’ wallets.” For the first time, EasyEquities had to navigate investor behaviour in tough times.
“We realised we couldn’t just rely on transactional revenue,” says Savage. “We needed a better share of annuity-based revenue.” Activity-based revenue includes execution revenue, foreign exchange transfer fees and early settlement fees — income driven by the level of client deposits, withdrawals and portfolio turnover. Non-activity-based (or annuity) revenue is more closely linked to the value of client assets on the platform, including asset management fees, administration revenue, cash management fees, Thrive revenue and other asset-based fees. Today, just more than half the company’s revenue is annuity-based, marking a significant evolution in the business model. “We’ve improved the business model, created efficiencies, our cost to serve has come down repeatedly.”
The evolution isn’t just financial — it’s also product-driven. A decade ago, EasyEquities was a one-trick pony offering access to local equities. Today, investors can access offshore shares such as Apple, Tesla and Amazon, allowing South Africans to diversify their portfolios with global giants. Bonds, such as South African government bonds or US treasuries, offer fixed income options for those seeking stability. ETFs have become a cornerstone, with popular choices like the Satrix MSCI World ETF, which tracks global markets, or the Satrix Govi ETF, focused on South African bonds. Savage highlights the strategic importance of ETFs: “We’re betting big on ETFs replacing traditional unit trusts in the long run. They’re cost-effective and transparent, aligning perfectly with our mission.” The platform also ventured into cryptocurrencies through EasyCrypto, and introduced EasyProperties for fractional real estate investments, such as stakes in rental properties. This diversification reflects Savage’s vision of a one-stop financial hub: “We ask: ‘What other financial needs can we solve for our clients?’ Because they trust us, introducing new products becomes frictionless.”
Central to EasyEquities’ success is its commitment to client education, which Savage considers a pillar of the business. “Many of our clients are first-time investors,” he notes, emphasising the platform’s role in guiding novices. Through blogs, webinars and in-app resources, EasyEquities demystifies investing. For instance, its EasyAcademy offers tutorials on everything from understanding ETFs to managing risk in crypto. Social media engagement, particularly on platforms such as X, fosters a community where users share insights and learn from one another. Savage sees this as more than just support — it’s about empowerment: “If you look at our client conversations, they’re measured. We’re changing South Africa’s investment culture, not feeding a get-rich-quick mindset.”
One of the most significant strategic moves came in 2023 with the launch of Thrive, a loyalty and behavioural rewards programme designed to encourage investor engagement. It came with a R25 monthly fee for inactive users, a sharp pivot from the traditionally free model. The backlash on social media was swift, but Savage stood firm. “We were putting everything in — tech, team, scale. Not everyone was pitching up. We said, just deposit R1 a month or do a course, and you don’t pay. That’s a fair exchange.”
Despite the noise, the results have been strong. “Before Thrive, the average investor deposited once every second month. Now, they deposit monthly,” says Savage. “It’s been good for the business, good for customers, and it’s driven revenue up.”
This blend of behavioural science, product expansion and robust platform strategy has made EasyEquities more resilient. It’s not just a bull market business any more. “We’ve built a much more resilient business that will deliver sustainable profits in all market conditions,” Savage says. “But it will thrive when economic tailwinds are behind it.”
When it comes to demographics, EasyEquities looks nothing like the traditional stockbroking industry. “Traditional stockbroking is still 55-year-old white men,” says Savage. “That’s still true for most brokers — except us.” EasyEquities’ average client age is 31, a number that has held steady for a decade. The biggest single cohort? 27-year-olds. “They’re post-university, starting to earn and looking for places to grow their money. We’d love younger clients. Twelve-year-olds are perfect. Warren Buffett says he regrets not starting younger than 11. Time is your greatest asset.”
Gender diversity is improving but still has room to grow. “42% female, 58% male — we’re still underindexing women,” Savage admits. In racial and geographic representation, EasyEquities mirrors South Africa’s demographics. “We reflect the country’s black demographics, and we match the continent’s average age of 27.”
Not that the user base has stagnated. While EasyEquities was once exclusively viewed as a platform for young retail investors with limited capital, institutional investors and high net worth individuals make up a growing share of revenue. “We serve customers between the ages of 12 and 100,” Savage says. “We cater for customers that have hundreds of millions or just a few rand, and nearly all of them use fractions.”
Fractional ownership may have started as a workaround for high prices, but it has grown into a philosophy. “Everyone starts their journey in something new with small amounts,” Savage explains. “It allows you to start investing in an asset class you don’t fully appreciate or understand, safely.”
Surprisingly, most clients still have the bulk of their funds in local assets, with about 85% of money on the platform held in rand-denominated investments. Savage attributes this to investor familiarity and regulatory limits. “Many of our clients are new investors, and they know local companies better. Plus, the R1m offshore allowance is still a constraint for some.” That said, EasyEquities is seeing a steady increase in offshore investing, especially as more educational content rolls out and access to international products continues to expand.
The platform has also introduced more long-term, buy-and-hold instruments such as bonds and ETFs. These generate less activity-based revenue because they tend to be traded less frequently, but they add value in other ways. “What’s key is that we’ve built a model that’s aligned with our clients’ success,” says Savage. “We don’t rely on portfolio churn, we focus on building long-term relationships and lifetime value. As our clients grow their wealth with us — through increased deposits, rising assets and adopting more products — so do the monetisation opportunities, without ever compromising the low-cost, inclusive ethos that defines EasyEquities.”
One major differentiator for EasyEquities has been giving retail investors direct access to specific South African government bonds — something previously reserved for institutions due to high minimums. Now, ordinary South Africans can invest in instruments such as the R2048 bond, yielding more than 11% at the time of writing. These longer-term holdings — often far exceeding the duration of bond ETFs — offer stability and potential gains if rates fall, with full flexibility to buy or sell anytime.
In Savage’s eyes, it’s another step in fulfilling the platform’s original promise — giving clients access to a full range of asset classes and investment opportunities. And as that access broadens, so does the long-term opportunity for both clients and the company.
Of course, success attracts competition. Investec’s Clarity and Standard Bank’s Shyft have entered the retail investing space, challenging EasyEquities’ dominance. Clarity targets a similar audience with a no-fee model, generating revenue through wider bid-offer spreads on trades. However, unlike EasyEquities, Clarity relies on contracts for difference, which don’t confer share ownership, voting rights, or the same tax treatment. Savage is quick to differentiate: “Clarity is more for traders, not traditional investors like our clients.” Shyft, initially a forex platform, has now expanded into equities, offering whole shares in markets such as the US, Europe and the JSE. Though Shyft plans to introduce fractional shares, it currently lacks this feature, limiting its appeal compared to EasyEquities’ flexibility.
Both competitors leverage their banking ecosystems, with Clarity tied to Investec’s wealth management and Shyft backed by Standard Bank’s scale. Yet, Savage remains confident: “We’ve built a world-class business with a decade’s head start. Our focus on ownership and education sets us apart.”
This first-mover advantage is now paying off in real financial terms. According to Savage, 70c of every extra rand in revenue goes straight to profit, which means EasyEquities is already monetising at scale while continuing to grow its product offering and innovation. “For any competitor to match our economics, they’ll have to burn through a lot of capital.”
That said, there are areas where rivals hold their own. Forex conversion fees remain a key friction point and Shyft, with its forex background, offers competitive rates. Savage concedes: “Shyft is definitely competitive on forex. But our fees are still significantly cheaper than traditional banks, and we’ve worked hard to close that gap further.”
Scale also creates strategic advantages, as shown in EasyEquities' handling of the Boxer IPO in November 2024 — the biggest JSE listing since 2017. EasyEquities used its platform to aggregate retail interest via an expression of interest mechanism, giving ordinary investors a shot at participating. Even though the IPO was heavily oversubscribed, EasyEquities secured meaningful allocations and distributed shares on a pro rata basis. The effort solidified the platform’s reputation for inclusion.
Fractional share ownership does have its challenges, with poor liquidity in small-cap shares probably the main gripe. “We’re all subject to the same underlying market liquidity available on exchange,” Savage says. “We carefully manage the balance between enabling access and mitigating the risk assumed in doing so. Clients can still invest in small caps within the individual transaction limits we set for each stock, which is informed by ongoing analysis of volatility and liquidity.”
The Purple profit patch
A decade of hard work was on full display in Purple Group’s interim 2025 results. For the six months ended February, the group delivered its strongest performance yet — driven by double-digit top-line growth, better client engagement and sustained cost discipline.
Purple reported a 26% hike in group revenue to R238m and a 238% surge in profit after tax to R40m for the half-year to end-February. Headline earnings were up more than 200% to 2.36c a share.
Valuation is in the eye of the beholder. It’s a bit more than 20 times because one needs to remove the economic value of the 30% Sanlam shareholding. At the time of writing Purple’s share price had gained more than 30% from April 8, the day before the release of the interim numbers.
The share still attracts a heady market rating on trailing and forward earnings multiples — which some local market watchers remain wary of in spite of similar ratings applied to fintech businesses on other global bourses.
David Eborall, portfolio manager at SaltLight Capital, acknowledges the rich market rating applied to Purple’s shares — but urges investors to be cognisant of two key factors that apply to subsidiary Easy Equities.
First, he points out that EasyEquities customers are typically young investors in their 30s. “Their disposable income is limited but it will grow as they move up in their careers. If EasyEquities does things right, these customers will be with it for decades.”
Second, Eborall argues that — at the unit economics level — EasyEquities has a relatively immature customer acquisition cohort.
He notes that about 70% of EasyEquities’ currently active customers originated during the pandemic. “The interesting thing is that customer cohorts follow a similar trajectory over time and grow rapidly as they mature. Over the next two to three years, if history is to play out, these accounts should grow rapidly as interest rates come down and users will have more disposable income.
Savage attributes the group’s robust performance to “stacking up good sets of results over the past three reporting periods” and sticking tightly to its strategic value drivers: acquiring users, getting them active, onboarding assets, and educating them along the way. “We’re very proud of the results, and importantly, they reflect the underlying strength and resilience of our business model — not one-offs. The growth is broad-based across products, platforms and client segments, and driven by sustained engagement, strong inflows and increasing client assets and assets under management.”
Savage adds: “While there are always some market-related dynamics that can influence short-term results, the core performance is sustainable, diversified and a reflection of the value we’re delivering to clients. We’ve built a scalable business that continues to grow alongside our clients, and we remain focused on long-term, consistent growth.”
And the numbers are starting to reflect just how efficient the business has become. With operating leverage fully kicking in, Purple Group now trades on an earnings multiple of about 22 — well below the historical average for the stock, which has typically commanded a premium thanks to its growth prospects. Prior to these results, Purple was trading at an earnings multiple of about 50. But Savage says his focus is on building the business. “If we do that, the share price will take care of itself.”
The blue sky on the Purple horizon
Purple Group has plenty of options to broaden the spectrum of services at EasyEquities.
EasyEquities has already made plain that it wants to expand its products and services as well as its geographical reach. On the product side, the strategy is clear: deepen relationships with the existing base of active subscribers by offering more value-added services, while targeting the 7-million South African taxpayers who are not yet clients. “There’s zero customer acquisition cost for the existing base,” Savage says. “We’ve already got their attention — we just need to keep adding value and meeting their needs with smart, relevant products.”
One of the newest products is EasyCredit, a lending solution that stands out from traditional unsecured loans. “At a maximum of prime plus 3%, our rates are significantly more competitive than most unsecured personal loans from banks, which often carry higher interest and additional fees,” says Savage. “What sets EasyCredit apart is that it’s asset-backed — secured by the client’s investment portfolio — allowing us to offer better pricing while helping clients retain their long-term investments.”
Later this year, EasyEquities will also launch EasySubscriptions, a tiered, bundled offering that provides premium access and benefits without requiring customers to participate in Thrive. “Some people like incentive schemes such as Thrive, while others just want to be charged upfront,” Savage explains. “EasySubscriptions is for the latter.”
Another strategic focus area is partnering with independent financial advisers. This marks a deliberate shift to bring EasyEquities’ platform and low-cost, digital-first solutions to wealth managers who are looking to serve a new generation of investors. “We’re launching within the next 12 months,” says Savage. “They’ll be able to onboard clients and access our distribution.”
Keith McLachlan, chief investment officer at Integral Asset Management, says EasyEquities is starting to hit critical mass in the local market. “The opportunity is that as it adds more and more products to the platform — different products to the current suite — it can get wonderful operational leverage in terms of lifting that average revenue per user per customer.”
But McLachlan warns that product and service expansion is not easy in a highly regulated financial services sector and that diversification adds complexity to the business model. “If it can navigate these challenges successfully, Purple will start seeing really good numbers at EasyEquities. The business has done well to reach its current scale. Markets are not easy, and South Africa is a relatively small market. The scaling up in the next 10 years is less about Purple and EasyEquities winning more market share and more about it monetising its existing opportunities by adding new products and services.”
Eborall believes the opportunity for EasyEquities will be to diversify into the rest of the disposable wallet — and “move up” the income statement to retirement savings.
He argues that these revenue streams are likely to be less cyclical and more annuity-like. “Furthermore, it has announced that it’s developing some financial adviser products where advisers can manage client accounts on top of EasyEquities’ product suite, which will lead to new distribution opportunities. We would love to see EasyEquities introduce a product that has everyday use such as a credit card or payment wallet.”
On the geographic front, Savage is candid: the group’s performance outside South Africa hasn’t lived up to expectations — at least not yet. “We’ve won the Currie Cup like 10 times in a row, but now it’s time we go and win the World Cup.” EasyEquities has planted flags in Australia, the Philippines and Kenya, but traction in those markets hasn’t yet mirrored its local success. Each region has posed unique regulatory, cultural and competitive challenges, and while most operations are live, the scale and growth curve have been more gradual than initially hoped.
Still, Savage is optimistic about the next phase. He says EasyEquities is doubling down in key regions, particularly the Philippines, where the company has partnered with GCash — one of the country’s largest fintech platforms. “We’re focused on expanding in the Philippines through our partnership with GCash, which gives us access to a huge user base and regulatory support,” he says. Kenya also remains a major area of focus. “Kenya is another exciting prospect — we’ve laid the groundwork for expansion there and are engaging with local regulators. Both markets align well with our mission of democratising investing for everyone.
“We’ve learnt a lot from those markets,” Savage adds. “They’ve helped improve our skill set for what it takes to expand in different geographies.” With a scaled local business and a capable team in place, he says he has fewer excuses not to deliver on international ambitions. “One of the privileges of having built a great team is that I’ve got less to do now than 10 years ago,” he says. “That gives me the space to focus on going global — and I’m 100% accountable for making that happen.”
Overall, EasyEquities has spent a decade building the pipes of a new financial system, one that puts ordinary investors first. It has weathered criticism, expanded slowly, focused on education and resisted the lure of short-term profit at the expense of long-term trust. As competition hots up and international expansion becomes a reality, the question isn’t whether EasyEquities can scale further, it’s how big it can get while staying true to the brand that brought it here.
“There are still 7-million people in South Africa — registered taxpayers — who aren’t investing with us,” Savage says. “We need to win them over while expanding our offering to existing clients. And that’s what keeps us going.”
Eborall is encouraged that the EasyEquities business model has similarities to some of the successful models that investors have seen in e-commerce and online aggregators. “These platforms first gather a broad base of customers at very low cost, and then, having secured their loyalty, introduce higher-margin products to serve users’ diverse needs.”
“Right now, EasyEquities is capturing users by offering brokerage services that are cheap and frictionless — exactly what appeals to the ‘long tail’ of young investors with small asset balances. These users are not desirable for traditional brokers; they prefer to chase ‘whales’ who are going to pay high-margin fees. They wouldn’t dare slash their fees to match EasyEquities because it would be financial seppuku.”
Eborall stresses that a technology-driven platform at scale can dramatically reduce costs to serve a user, turning these small, traditionally “unprofitable” customers into profitable ones.
“EasyEquities is entering its next stage — the second act, as it were — where it rolls out additional products. And here’s the kicker: it doesn’t have to spend heavily to acquire new customers again. We think that it can experiment with new products to serve its diverse customer base and see what works. This formula is likely to lead to increasing profitability. We can see it in its recent results: for every R100 of revenue, it’s already making R70 in margin. That’s a powerful economic proposition.”
EasyEquities and Sanlam
The relationship between EasyEquities and Sanlam began in 2015 when Satrix, Sanlam’s index-tracking business, adopted EasyEquities’ technology for its SatrixNow platform. This move not only enabled fractional ETF investing and expanded Satrix’s digital reach but also started a long-term partnership. For EasyEquities, it meant steady platform fees — now about R20m annually — a reliable revenue stream that helped establish credibility in a market still wary of fintech.
A year later, Sanlam looked to extend Satrix’s exclusivity agreement. Instead, Purple Group CEO Charles Savage proposed something bolder: an equity stake. Sanlam agreed, investing R100m in 2017 for a 30% share. The all-cash deal funded EasyEquities’ growth plans and gave Sanlam a seat at the strategic table. Purple Group, the JSE-listed parent of EasyEquities, held onto its 70% majority.
Since then, the relationship has deepened. When EasyEquities needed funding in 2019 to drive towards profitability, Sanlam stepped in with R25m in loans. The two also partnered on EasyProtect, a fully digital life insurance product underwritten by Sanlam — expanding their collaboration beyond investing into personal finance. Sanlam’s internal audit team, meanwhile, conducts annual reviews of EasyEquities’ platform and controls as part of its SatrixNow assurance work, underscoring the operational integration between the two.
More collaboration seems inevitable. As EasyEquities looks to open its platform to financial advisers, Sanlam’s extensive adviser network — spanning tied agents and independent financial advisers across its distribution channels — could prove a natural fit. A logical next step would be for EasyEquities to work with Sanlam to take these advisers on board, enabling them to use EasyEquities’ tech infrastructure to manage client portfolios more efficiently. Such a move would align both companies’ interests: expanding reach for EasyEquities, and enhancing digital capabilities for Sanlam’s advisory force.
So, would Sanlam want to own EasyEquities outright one day? Unlikely. Though it underwrote a joint Purple Group/EasyEquities rights offer in 2023 — another show of support — there’s little strategic incentive for a full buyout. EasyEquities is profitable and no longer reliant on external capital. And for Sanlam, a financial giant with a R170bn market cap, acquiring the rest of Purple Group — valued at about R2bn — would barely move the needle. Beyond that, it risks alienating EasyEquities’ retail investor base, many of whom are Purple Group shareholders and deeply invested in the platform’s culture and future. Unless Sanlam offered a hefty premium that reflected the growth narrative retail investors believe in, it’s hard to see such a deal winning approval.
David Eborall, portfolio manager at SaltLight Capital, says it could make sense for Sanlam to be “flipped” to the holding company level and sit around the table with Purple shareholders. “That being said, we can speculate that they have some negative control rights that could block corporate action. Given the current valuation, it might be a feature rather than a bug preventing an opportunistic player taking out Purple at a discount.” — Marc Hasenfuss
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