UK fintech Sidekick has raised £7.8m in Series A funding as it looks to widen access to investment products that have traditionally been locked inside private banks.
The round was led by Eos Ventures and the Development Bank of Wales, with backing from Koro Capital and existing investors including Seedcamp, MS&AD Ventures and TheVentureCity.
Founded in 2022, Sidekick is aimed squarely at professionals whose finances have outgrown entry-level investing apps but who don’t see the value, or accessibility, in traditional private banking. The platform targets people managing larger balances, multiple income streams and longer-term financial decisions, without the opaque fees and relationship-manager model that still dominates wealth management.
Unlike most consumer investing platforms, Sidekick has been built around complexity rather than simplicity. Alongside long-term public market investing and personalised portfolios, the platform offers access to private markets and Lombard lending, borrowing against an investment portfolio without selling assets, a facility historically reserved for high-net-worth clients inside private banks.
Its managed portfolios include an “All Weather” strategy designed to spread risk across different market conditions, while its cash products are aimed at users holding larger balances. One of these, Multi Shield Savings, allows customers to distribute cash across multiple partner banks from a single account, helping them maximise FSCS protection without micromanaging multiple providers.
The company now supports more than £145m in customer assets, reflecting growing demand from professionals who want visibility and control as their financial lives become more complicated — not less.
Founder and CEO Matt Ford (pictured) said many high-earning professionals still feel uncertain about whether they’re actually making their money work for them. He said Sidekick was built to remove unnecessary complexity while giving users access to tools that have historically been restricted to private banking clients.
The funding will be used to expand Sidekick’s investment offering, grow its team and scale operations, including building out roles in Cardiff across customer service, compliance and operations, supported by the Development Bank of Wales.
Investors said the raise reflects a gap in the market. While banking, trading and payments have been reshaped by technology over the past decade, private banking has largely remained expensive, opaque and slow to evolve, leaving a growing cohort of professionals underserved.
Why this lands with sole traders and consultants
For people who don’t get paid the same amount every month, wealth management has always felt slightly misaligned. One good quarter can be followed by a thin one. Cash piles up, then drains away. Tax bills arrive on fixed dates regardless of when clients decide to pay.
Traditional private banks weren’t built for that reality, and neither were beginner investing apps designed around spare change and round-ups. The gap in the middle is where a lot of self-employed professionals sit: too complex for simple tools, not “wealthy enough” for the velvet rope.
Platforms like Sidekick aren’t about chasing yield or pretending income is smooth. They’re about giving people with lumpy earnings, delayed invoices and growing balances somewhere sensible to park money, invest long-term, and access liquidity without blowing everything up. That’s not luxury finance, it’s modern self-employment finance catching up with how people actually live.
