Share trading platform Superhero wants to save investors cash and steal Sharesies users

Superhero co-founders John Winters (left) and Wayne Baskin are eyeing investors in New Zealand.

The Sydney-based co-founders of share trading platform Superhero look bizarrely alike, but swear they’re unrelated. They say the same about how their app, launching in New Zealand today, compares with competitors.

“Our goal is to give investors in New Zealand the opportunity to invest without prohibitive costs or complicated pricing models,” Superhero chief executive and co-founder John Winters said.

Similarly to the share-broking app Sharesies, Kiwi investors can use the Superhero app to buy and sell shares of companies listed on stock exchanges in Australia and the United States, for a set 0.5 per cent foreign exchange fee, an additional A$5 brokerage for Australian company trades and no fee for US trades - the latter exclusion likely to be a drawcard for local investors.

Trading of New Zealand-listed stocks was a few months away, with no pricing plan for our market announced yet.

Speaking to the Herald exclusively ahead of its local launch, Winters made a not-so-subtle dig at competitors like Sharesies and traditional share-broking firms, which he referred to as “incumbents” - a term used to describe businesses ripe for disruption.

“We just don’t think that they’re hitting the nail on the head when it comes to delivering on their brand and customer promises.

“Sometimes it’s only one market that they’re providing [trading] to, or they have very high fees across other markets.”

The Superhero platform provided a “neat, understandable package”, he said.

Education was its edge, co-founder Wayne Baskin added.

“Because it’s all great that someone knows what a limit order is, or a stop loss order is ... But then, okay, next, what do I invest in? How do I even find the securities I want to invest in?”

That sounded like it could offer financial advice, but Winters said it wouldn’t - it didn’t have a licence to do that.

“That does limit us, in a way, to providing factual information,” Winters said.

Superhero launched in Australia in 2021 and has 240,000 users - compared with Sharesies’ more than 500,000 users.

Winters and Baskin say they plan to steal some of those customers from existing platforms - but also want to capture first-time investors.

“We see the pie growing as we move into New Zealand ... And I hope to see people moving away from the incumbents.”

When asked what they knew of their competitors on this side of the ditch, and how they might respond to the Superhero move, the pair were amused.

“She’s asking good questions,” Winters laughed.

Baskin chimed in: “We’re not looking to kill competitors or ... hurt competitors in any way. At the end of the day, it’s all about the customer and giving the customer the best experience.”

They viewed their platform as embracing all levels and demographic of investors - from a first-time trader to a “dabbler” or sophisticated dealer, Winters said.

“We’re looking for that sort of older millennial through to sort of younger Gen X.”

Its demographic in Australia was 30-year-olds, with a growing portion of females signing up.

Winters said it earned most of its revenue through baked-in foreign exchange fees.

New Zealand investors’ money would be held in custody by the Bank of New Zealand if denominated in kiwi dollars, by a custodian in Australia if in Australian dollars, and in the US if in American dollars.

He was confident it had met all regulatory requirements to operate in New Zealand, including anti-money laundering and countering of financing terrorism (AML/CFT) laws and holding all necessary licences.