First Cohort FAQs

Upside is turning on real-world investing - your money into real stock markets within our unique framework. We are asking early users to join us in refining and steering the product (join Discord to follow our product releases live, and give feedback - or in app).

This first investing journey will involve users building a portfolio from a combination of single stocks and thematic Bundles. This structure provides users with a far more engaged, intentional, and customised experience compared with traditional asset managers, whilst ensuring users are better protected against the risks of single stock investing prevalent with current stock trading apps.

This will soon expand to allow users to include an additional low-risk Base layer in the second phase of testing, and finally we will allow full user determination on the relative weights within each portfolio layer.

A First Cohort User is a member of this initial real-world investing phase.

These users will be selected based on a first come-first serve basis, from our existing user list.

The initial wave will comprise 50 people.

Your money and investments will sit with Upside’s partner WealthKernel.

WealthKernel Limited is authorised and regulated by the Financial Conduct Authority, no. 723719, registered in England and Wales, no. 09686970, with a registered office at 41 Luke St, London, UK, EC2A 4DP. All assets held under custody are protected by The Financial Services Compensation Scheme (FSCS) up to a value of £85,000.

Upside’s sister company Higher Park will manage the Bundle creation and maintenance. Higher Park Limited is authorised and regulated by the Financial Conduct Authority. Company number 11287513. Firm Reference Number 825162.

As a First Cohort User, you will only be able to initially invest £250. However, you will also get priority access to new products as they are rolled out, ahead of general launch, at which time you will be able to invest as much as you like.

The earliest your money can be withdrawn is the end of the testing period, or 12 months - whichever comes sooner.

While we expect to transition all test portfolios to fully active portfolios in Q1 2023 (and therefore allow full flexible investments, deposits and withdrawals), the testing period may extend up to 12 months.

After 12 months, first cohort users will receive £250 + any portfolio gains. As such, if the value of your portfolio is less than £250 you will receive back £250. If it is greater than £250, you will receive the value of the portfolio.

For example:

The value of a user’s portfolio is determined by the valuation of all investments within it after the deduction of any fees.

As a First Cohort User, you will be charged 0.21% of your investment account value. Should your investment account value exceed £2,000, you will pay an additional fee of £4.99 a month. These fees will not form a part of our capital guarantee scheme.

For this test phase, your investment will be made under a General Investment Account (GIA).

ISAs and SIPP investment wrappers will come following general release.

Your portfolio will comprise:

As the values of the investments change, the weights will drift from the initial weights.

Bundles are our unique themed collections of stocks, designed and managed by our Upside technology. They allow you to be more focused and adventurous by investing in what you believe in. Our Bundles are all comprised of major UK and US equities and cover themes such as green energy, socially conscious investing and female-led companies among others. Read more about Upside Bundles here.

For the test period, this will not be possible.

While we finalise the portfolio tracking functionality in the app, you performance details will be emailed to you on a regular basis.

However, as First Cohort User, you will be able to contact us through Slack and email to ask for updates at any time.

Upside is the world’s first augmented investment app. You choose what you want to invest in: combining a protective base layer with themes that reflect your values, and individual stocks you have belief in. Your tolerance to risk then determines the ideal blend between each layer for you.

The base layer and themed bundles are actively managed by Upside using a combination of fundamental research and quantitative modelling. You’ll be notified of all changes to them. Meanwhile, you’ll have full control on your single stock layer and be able to change your risk level.

For this phase we have limited the functionality, but after general release, all these features will be available.

If you are an experienced investor and looking to build a focused single stock portfolio, please contact us using the email at the bottom of this page and we can discuss your needs.

As we’ve gotten increasing volumes of great user feedback, we’ve realised that 90% of the people we are trying to help are time poor. They want to invest, but don’t know where to start.

We also realise that trying to get someone to “be a hedge fund manager” in 20 minutes wasn't realistic, fair, or what 99% of people want.

So we’ve developed a concept of modular investing. The website version will become the standard Upside app investment onboarding, while retaining much of the current app’s backend and infrastructure.

The single name focus with research, insights and news will likely be retained as a Pro version in the future.

If you have any other questions, please send them to help@upsidetechnology.co and we will publish the answers from all users here.