<\/p>\n
<\/iframe><\/p>\n<p>You can also listen to this podcast on iono.fm here.<\/p>\n<p><strong>SIMON BROWN: <\/strong>I\u2019m chatting with Charles Savage, CEO of Purple Group. A disclaimer upfront \u2013 I hold shares in Purple. They are of course EasyEquities. Charles, appreciate you time on Monday afternoon, with the announcement coming through around an acquisition of Telescope\u00a0AI \u2013 $10.75\u00a0million. We\u2019ll get to the Ts\u00a0&\u00a0Cs in a moment.<\/p>\n<p>The first question: What is Telescope\u00a0AI, and why the acquisition?<\/p>\n<p><strong>CHARLES SAVAGE: <\/strong>How\u2019s it, Simon? Thanks for taking the interest. Telescope\u00a0AI essentially provides AI investment services to investors in a regulated and compliant way. We use one of their services, and in fact we were their first client.<\/p>\n<p>If you\u2019ve used the platform, as I know you have, then you would have come across it in AI Baskets, which is the ability to have a conversation with AI to construct a portfolio across the world, the globe.<\/p>\n<p>That\u2019s just one of their products that they deliver. They\u2019ve got a whole stack of products from research to portfolio insights, to portfolio construction. They\u2019ve been working on AI advisory, compliance advisory, compliance service and a whole host of other things.<\/p>\n<p>Read:<br \/>Adams & Adams launches platform to help businesses manage AI risks<br \/>Wall Street\u2019s AI race is fuelling new fears of crowded trading<br \/>Investors looking for shelter from AI storm are turning to India<\/p>\n<p>But fundamentally, if you like, they\u2019re using AI to make investing more insightful and rewarding and easier \u2013 educational for everyone. We think that that\u2019s going to be an important part of the future landscape of all brokers and businesses like ours.<\/p>\n<p>Hence we\u2019ve taken the opportunity to acquire them, having worked alongside them for over two years.<\/p>\n<p><strong>SIMON BROWN: <\/strong>Part of this \u2013 and in fact, I\u2019m reading a tweet \u2013 is you talk around \u2018AI at scale\u2019. This very much is, to a degree, AI at scale. It\u2019s investing at scale, which for Purple Group with one million-plus clients, is the name of the game.<\/p>\n<p><strong>CHARLES SAVAGE: <\/strong>Exactly. And a lot of these AI services are operating outside the house, if you like. So they\u2019re building products and services from the boardrooms of their own businesses.<\/p>\n<p>What we want to do is build products and services from the insights of our customer data and behaviour, which are now over a decade old. We think that if you do that at scale you\u2019ll create better products and services faster than if you do it outside the house, if you like.<\/p>\n<p>Read: Invest smarter: Technology is changing the investment landscape forever<\/p>\n<p>Our bet is that working with this extraordinary team we\u2019ll be able to do three things. One, accelerate our product capabilities. Two, introduce better products and services at all customer touchpoints by using AI. And three, come up with new products and services that are impossible for us to predict.<\/p>\n<blockquote>\n<p>But we think we\u2019ll emerge with a better understanding of AI in the context of our customer data and behaviour.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<p>And if just one of those things does well, then the opportunity which looks, if you like, expensive on the surface, is really cheap in execution. A $1\u00a0million product line, and this is a very cheap acquisition.<\/p>\n<p>And I think we\u2019re going to produce multiples of $1\u00a0million product lines as a result of this transaction.<\/p>\n<p>Read:<br \/>Purple Group revolutionising retail investing<br \/>Purple Group enjoys six-month surge<br \/>Purple Group rallies on EasyEquities growth<\/p>\n<p><strong>SIMON BROWN: <\/strong>I take your point \u2013 stuff we can\u2019t even dream of at this point in time will come through.<\/p>\n<p>Is the team going to stay on, because I imagine something like this is intellectual property within the individuals as much as what they have already created?<\/p>\n<p><strong>CHARLES SAVAGE: <\/strong>Yes, it\u2019s a five-year term. So the balance of the transaction vests over a five-year period, and the team have signed five-year contracts that keep them around for that period at a minimum.<\/p>\n<p>But I think this is a team we\u2019ve worked alongside. They understand the culture of that. We understand the culture of the business as well, and I think this is a team that will work well together long beyond just a five-year period.<\/p>\n<p><strong>SIMON BROWN:<\/strong> Telescope\u00a0AI have worked with other customers as well, most notably [global trading platform] IG. Will they continue with third parties, or will they now be sort of exclusive and bespoke to the broader Purple Group?<\/p>\n<p><strong>CHARLES SAVAGE: <\/strong>No, we\u2019ve done the transaction in two levels. Purple Group buys 50%, and EasyEquities the other 50%. That\u2019s to ensure there\u2019s proper segregation of function and duties. So the partnership business will be retained and kept.<\/p>\n<p>We actually think that by building products for EasyEquities they\u2019ll build better products for their customers. And then the business will also be integrated into the EasyEquities ecosystem.<\/p>\n<p>So the two businesses will be kept apart. As you know, we run really good partner businesses across competing business lines, if you like \u2013 Capitec, Discovery, et cetera.<\/p>\n<p>So the intention is to do the same here, to make sure that the partnerships are maintained and that we build better products and deliver them to their customers in time.<\/p>\n<p>Read:<br \/>EasyEquities fuels strong earnings growth at Purple Group<br \/>Does SA really need another ZAR stablecoin?<br \/>Charles Savage: The decade that shaped EasyEquities<\/p>\n<p><strong>SIMON BROWN: <\/strong>As I said upfront, what, $10.75 million \u2013 this is US dollars \u2013 some shares, almost 20 million shares. That\u2019s not giant in the world. You\u2019ve got 1.4 billion, so that\u2019s not a significant number of shares, $5 million in cash \u2013 you\u2019ve got the cash.<\/p>\n<p>Are there any things to be fulfilled, or is this just, I don\u2019t know, getting the signatures and making it happen?<\/p>\n<p><strong>CHARLES SAVAGE: <\/strong>The signatures are all in place. We just need Sarb [South African Reserve Bank] approval and then this transaction will go ahead. And I think there\u2019s no reason for it not to go ahead. It\u2019s just a formality.<\/p>\n<p><strong>SIMON BROWN: <\/strong>We\u2019ll leave it there. Charles Savage, CEO of Purple Group, I appreciate the time.<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<p>#meets #investing #Purple #Groups #bold #leap<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>You can also listen to this podcast on iono.fm here. SIMON BROWN: I\u2019m chatting with Charles Savage, CEO of Purple Group. 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