Moneybox profit slides as wealth manager bets on ‘high levels of automation’
Moneybox saw its profit slide by nearly a quarter in the last year as the wealth manager invested “heavily” in new technology and bet on “high levels of automation”.
The London-based fintech notched its third consecutive year of profitability but faced a 23 per cent drop in its pre-tax takings at £14.9m by the end of 2025, compared with £19.4m at the end of the prior year.
It came despite the firm growing revenue by more than a fifth to £115.6m as assets under administration rocketed 62 per cent to £19bn.
Moneybox’s capital resources dropped to just shy of £60m after it deployed £18.5m on a share buyback program.
Costs jumped on the back of higher investment in tech and marketing, with the firm launching a blitz campaign in the second half of the year spanning television, radio, and out-of-home advertising to drive customer acquisition. Annual costs topped £100m, a climb of over 23 per cent.
Around £6.8m was also spent on software and platform development in the second half of 2025, as the firm sought to beef up its tech infrastructure.
Moneybox targets efficiency gains on automation
This “heavily re-investing” program was also pointed to for its narrowing profit margin, which shrank to to 13 per cent from 21 per cent.
But amidst the bullish embrace of tech, the firm’s headcount shrank to 419 at the end of 2025, from 437 in 2024.
“Our headcount growth is non-linear to business growth, and the largest proportion of our payroll spend is focused on bolstering technical expertise to drive innovation,” the firm said.
Moneybox added it had built an “efficient business” with “high levels of automation and a relatively modest employee base given the scale we operate”.
The fintech also brought trading to an end at its mortgage subsidiary. Whilst the entity still exists, it has outsourced its portfolio to a third party dubbed First Mortgages.
The platform, which was founded in 2015, offers a host of products for savers including both stocks and shares and cash ISAs, pension consolidation services and end-to-end homebuying services.
Moneybox accuses Reeves of ‘policy theatre’
Moneybox has been a vocal critic of changes brought forward by Rachel Reeves to the ISA regime.
The Chancellor has opened consultation to replace the lifetime ISA product with another product for first-time homebuyers, which has been branded “policy theatre” by the firm.
A leaked letter penned by Moneybox to Reeves said the consultation was a “costly exercise” that could fail “to address the very issues cited to justify replacing the LISA”.
The firm is one of the nation’s largest providers of lifetime ISAs to its over 1.6m customers.
More than 200,000 customers at the fintech have used a LISA to save for a deposit for their first home.
Last year, Moneybox set the rumour mill turning after enlising finance heavyweight Melissa Birge as a new independent non-executive director to its board this year. Birge led Kayak’s IPO as chief financial officer and was tasked with supporting Moneybox’s next phase of growth.