Upsido is a Danish startup providing a web service for Nordic private investors that focus on fundamental analysis. Upsido claim to offer the most comprehensive, quickly updated, and accurate financial information, tools and news on Nordic public companies. The service aims to allow private investors to make sounder long-term investment decisions and track their portfolio performance.
Upsido have recognized a global trend of banking customers having lost confidence in their bank’s investment advice. The firm’s service is based around the message of saving money by quitting getting investment advice from your current bank, and doing stock analyses both faster and more efficiently on your own using their web service – with better decisions. Upsido’s service covers around 1,000 stocks in Denmark, Sweden, Norway and Finland, and the firm aims to expand the service and customer base to the whole of Nordic region in the coming year.
The users of Upsido’s service have access to different tools such as screening, comparison, sector risk, fundamental ratings, etc. There is a free service offering stock overview, financial news, portfolio tracking, and stock watchlist features, but the more interesting and advanced functions are available only after a monthly subscription fee of around 9 EUR (or 13 USD). The unique “UPSIDO Rating” ratio is also only available to paid users. It is a ratio which aims to convey the overall fundamental strength of a company from a mix of ratios such as P/E, P/B, EV/EBITDA, dividend yield, sales growth, EPS growth, etc. (Upsido also offers a good glossary, if you are not familiar with all terms), and that way help investors quickly sort out the best firms.
The firm was founded in late 2007. The CEO Peter Garnry explains that in the beginning, Upsido first tried the B2B route, offering a web application through the Internet bank solutions of all major banks. They managed to get five larger banks in Denmark close to signing a contract, but then after Lehman Brothers went bankrupt everything came to a halt. After revising their strategy, Upsido decided to distribute the service directly to consumers (investors). The change was tough, but the firm survived and is now experiencing a nice growth rate, Garnry comments. Upsido has some customers in Sweden and Norway already, but in 2010, the firm is looking to really penetrate the Norwegian, Swedish and Finnish markets, utilizing partnerships like The Danish Shareholder Association, online broker E*Trade, and business newspaper Dagbladet Børsen already active in Denmark.
I had a chance to try out the premium version of the service, and it proved to be quite good. The look is perhaps a bit formal, but the UI is fast and simple to use. And there are definitely lots of stocks and stats to dig into. Given the ease of sorting through different info and using different tools, the service seems to fare well against, for example, Yahoo Finance, E-Trade and Nordnet to name a few. After a short while I found myself liking Upsido more than those, in fact, when it comes to financial info and comparison features. There are a few minor glitches though. At the moment, if you want to keep track of your own portfolio, you would need to add each stock info manually without any import features, which can be cumbersome. Also, it seems the currency setting in some cases, and all of the news, are still very much tied to the Danish market. Nevertheless, while the service is not necessarily yet ground breaking, the good execution and clear niche can ensure Upsido’s user base growth to continue quite steadily.
