Australian fintech startup Stake is set to offer zero brokerage fees for South American investors trading in US assets through its expanded partnership with US broker-dealer DriveWealth, LLC.

This collaboration enables Stake’s users to build portfolios of US stocks, ETFs, and ADRs with low costs. The fractional trading feature also eliminates the barriers that many investors face when trying to invest in a diversified portfolio of US-listed securities.

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The Sydney-based company’s product is particularly popular among millennials, who appreciate the ease of using the app to trade several asset classes without fees.

Beginning in Brazil in early March, Stake’s offering is a similar concept to commission-free investing app Robinhood, which also has zero brokerage fees and has reached five million users in the US. Robinhood raised last year its latest round of funding, ‎bringing in $363 million at a $5.6 billion valuation. ‎The six-year-old startup states it is also coming to Australia soon.

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Many firms are now using cheap or free trading to attract clients to more profitable businesses. For now, they can keep their free platform afloat through making compromises to some ‎business aspects such as not having many physical locations, a small staff ‎for client service, and not spending on massive promotional campaigns. ‎

DriveWealth already partners with many financial institutions, brokers, app developers, and technology companies to provide users with the ability to open a US-based brokerage account and invest in the US equities market.

Commenting on the news, DriveWealth CEO Robert Cortright said: “Our partnership in Australia with Stake has been a great success to date, with thousands of users signing up each month.  Both of our companies are focused on bringing simple, digital, affordable access to the U.S. equity markets for investors around the world, and this expansion into South America is an important step forward in achieving that goal.”

Stake CEO Matt Leibowitz added: “No matter where you live, you should have equal access to opportunity. Our focus is to deliver the best trading experience in the world’s biggest and most important share market, the U.S. stock market. We’re on a mission to democratize access to global financial markets and believe that this access should be direct, simple and accessible. Our partnership with DriveWealth aligns perfectly with that mission.”