EasyEquities – South Africa’s Robinhood?

Robinhood (HOOD), once dismissed as a speculative trading app, is now regarded as a financial services market leader for a new generation – as evidenced by its recent addition to the S&P 500.

When looking at this development from a South African context, what is striking is how this could be an indicator of what EasyEquities could achieve on the JSE in the near future.

Purple Group’s numbers revealed that EasyEquities boasts over 1.1 million funded clients, over R80 billion in client assets, and record-breaking yearly deposits.

• Click here to learn more about EasyEquities.

This is chiefly thanks to the platform shifting from cyclical surges to sustained, high-intent funding behaviour, highlighting that EasyEquities has built something much more than a simple trading app.

Much like Robinhood, EasyEquities offers an easy platform for investment and trading, but it is also in the process of expanding its offerings into a diverse ecosystem that includes:

• Properties – EasyProperties reactivated IPOs – with over 50 developments listed – and expanded into services such as EasyMortgage.
• Credit and Insurance – EasyCredit and EasyProtect are gaining market traction, and are in a great position to scale in the coming years.
• Retirement and Institutional – EasyRetire boasts a retail NAV of around R1.5 billion (including Satrix), and RISE has an institutional NAV of R14.9 billion. These products are anchoring Purple Group’s move into the wealth segment.
• ETFs and AI – EasyETFs expects to close FY25 with R1.25 billion AUM, while AI baskets attracted over 40,000 creations and are growing in adoption.
• Partnerships – Capitec Bank (200k+ funded clients), Discovery Bank (3,000 new accounts in August alone), Satrix (over R18.5 billion retail NAV), and GCash (now live in sandbox) are execution engines connecting EasyEquities to millions of users in South Africa and in Asia.

This diversification parallels Robinhood’s growth journey – and Robinhood was able to grow its equity trading share from 2.8% in 2023 to 5.5% in 2025 and become a dominant force in options and crypto.

EasyEquities, while smaller in market, is executing a similar strategy by starting with low-cost, fractional access, then layering on wealth, retirement, and embedded financial services.

Thanks to this approach, EasyEquities is positioning itself to consolidate South Africa’s fragmented savings landscape.

Its current “Bring it Home” campaign is a great example of this, as it extends cash-back incentives across all account types and has been designed to get clients consolidating their investments onto one platform.

These initiatives aim to ensure EasyEquities is seen as South Africa’s lowest-cost, most inclusive place for “all things investing.”

The road to the top 40

Robinhood’s inclusion in the S&P 500 was a key milestone in its journey to the top of the market, and for Purple Group, earning a place in the JSE Top 40 would be an equivalent achievement for EasyEquities.

“Eleven years ago, we took the counter-position — make investing easier and everyone will invest,” said Charles Savage, Purple Group CEO.

“FY25 proves it again, with more clients pitching up than ever before, bringing more capital with them, and compounding their wealth by an average of 28% a year for over a decade.”

If Robinhood’s inclusion in the S&P 500 is a signal of how far a once-controversial trading app can go, EasyEquities’ own performance suggests South Africa may have its own candidate for the JSE Top 40 in the years ahead.

Click here to learn more about EasyEquities. Or open your international account now.