One South African company doubled investors’ money in 2025

Purple Group’s stock has rallied in 2025 so far, with the investing giant’s share price up over 100% in the year to date.

This has seen Purple Group, which owns popular trading platform EasyEquities, reach a market cap of R3.26 billion on the JSE.

The most recent rally in the company’s share price came after it released stellar results for its 2025 financial year, marking a significant improvement from Purple Group’s struggles just a few years ago.

Purple Group has been around for decades, founded in 1998 by former South African Post Office CEO Mark Barnes.

The company was listed that same year and performed decently well, offering a variety of financial and trading products.

However, this all changed in 2014, when Purple Group launched what would eventually become its crown jewel – EasyEquities.

Born from a desire to democratise investment by making investing in equities and other securities more accessible, Purple Group created EasyEquities under the leadership of CEO Charles Savage.

EasyEquities not only made it easier for South Africans to invest in equities but also made it more affordable.

The platform’s fractional share rights model allowed investors to buy and sell small portions of equities, rather than needing to buy a whole share.

Since its launch, the platform has continued to grow, taking the country’s investment landscape by storm.

In the company’s 2016 Integrated Report, Barnes, who now serves as the company’s chairman, said, “Asset management as you knew it, stockbroking as you knew it, will never be the same again.”

In that year, EasyEquities added an additional 22,000 customers to a total of over 30,000, and its client assets reached R711 million, a 360% increase from 2015.

However, despite this tremendous growth, EasyEquities was still a drain on Purple Group’s finances, as the company was investing heavily in the platform at that stage.

In the 2016 financial year, Purple Group‘s operating expenses shot up by 24.8% due to its investment in people, IT and marketing, largely for EasyEquities.

This is also why Purple Group swung to a loss that year, going from a profit of R29.44 million in 2015 to a loss of R3.19 million in 2016.

From broke to brilliant

Purple Group continued to take losses due to its heavy investment in EasyEquities, with revenue declining from 2015 to 2018, and the company’s losses deepening over the same period.

The company’s worst loss in the past decade came in 2017, when it recorded a loss of R57.86 million.

Barnes explained in the group’s 2017 Integrated Report that EasyEquities has taken money and management time, and energy to get off the ground.

Coupled with blows to its other businesses, this led to a “disappointing set of numbers” for the company, and no financial return for investors.

“It’s a hard swallow, but I think it will be worth it,” the chairman said – and just a few years later, he was proven right.

Purple Group continued to record losses until 2020, when it swung back into the black, recording an – albeit modest – profit of R17.14 million. 

In that year, the company also recorded revenue of R162.67 million, the highest in its history at that point. 

In its Integrated Report for that year, the company said the pandemic, which defined 2020 for many, ensured that Purple Group’s strategy resulted in massive growth across the business.

“Our Corona year will best be remembered as one where the agile way of working, our capacity building in terms of people, systems and products, as well as our passion for ensuring everyone can invest, easily, ensured massive growth across all areas of the business,” the company said.

This is the year that EasyEquities, and by extension Purple Group, appeared to be hitting its stride, with the platform reaching 260,885 funded investment accounts and assets totalling R21.6 billion.

This is also the year when EasyEquities concluded its collaboration with Capitec, which allowed the company to rely not only on organic growth to increase its client base, but also through acquisitions via partnerships.

Purple Group managed to sustain this momentum over the two financial years that followed, achieving a massive profit of R72.65 million in 2021.

However, the company’s profit started to decline again the next year, and in 2023, the company swung into a substantial loss of R35.2 million.

Breaking fee

Purple Group attributed its massive 2023 loss to factors largely outside its control, with CEO Savage saying the company faced “some formidable economic challenges”.

He described 2023 as a “rollercoaster marked by economic fluctuations in the period”, including a significant downturn and escalating interest rates.

In that year, Purple Group’s revenue grew by a meagre 0.8%, while its commissions and research expenses shot up by over 160%, with other expenses also up by around 32%.

However, things would soon turn around for the company, as it found itself back in the black by the next financial year, 2024.

This turnaround was aided by Purple Group’s addition of a platform fee on EasyEquities in November 2023. Prior to this, the platform was free to use, with the company making money off transactions.

Framed around its loyalty programme, Thrive, EasyEquities announced that it would now make participation in the programme mandatory for all platform users.

This came along with a monthly R25 Thrive fee, which users could avoid by reaching Thrive level 3.

This change was intended to increase clients’ engagement with the platform, as the fee could be avoided by depositing more than you withdraw each month.

The change also boosted the company’s financials, as the monthly fee helped to increase retail revenue by 67.2% to R240.6 million and non-activity-based revenue by 65.7% to R206.4 million.

In 2024, Purple Group returned to profitability, recording a profit of R35.58 million, an almost 100% improvement from the R35.2 million loss it recorded the year prior.

This strong growth continued into the group’s latest results for the 2025 financial year, which saw Purple Group record a massive profit of R78.82 million, doubling its profit from the prior year.

Now, the Purple Group looks set to maintain this momentum, as EasyEquities continues to grow from strength to strength, with active clients now exceeding 1.15 million.

“This year, we demonstrably evidenced the value of compounding at scale and accelerated growth across all value drivers, while remaining disciplined in execution and grounded by the incredible runways for growth ahead,” Savage said.

While it has been a rocky road to reach this point, Purple Group appears well-positioned to leverage its fast-growing EasyEquities platform and new products for future growth.

In addition, an expected rebound in South Africa’s economy over the next few years, which could see lower inflation and interest rates, is set to provide the company with a welcome boost.

Regardless of Purple Group’s ups and downs, it is undeniable that its EasyEquities platform disrupted South Africa’s investment landscape and opened the door for new, smaller competitors to also enter the market.

“When one day we reflect on what EasyEquities achieved, it will be found to have gone beyond its obvious investment channel, market access merits, to invite, educate, include and empower ordinary people into the world of wealth creation previously, wrongly, foolishly, denied them,” Barnes said in the group’s 2017 Integrated Report. 

“Its applications will have extended way beyond its primary function as the easiest, cheapest retail channel to market, as it straddles structures like corporate loyalty programs and incentive schemes.” 

“EasyEquities is the business of our future. Get one of your kids to show you how it works, and you’ll see what I mean.”

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Purple Group’s performance

The graphs below show the trends in Purple Group’s revenue and profit/loss over the past decade, as well as its share price in the year to date.

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