When we look at Purple Group’s latest interim results, the tone set in Charles Savage’s CEO letter carries through clearly. The numbers are doing the talking and the way the business is growing feels more intentional, more settled. It’s a natural outcome of what we’ve been building toward.

EasyEquities client growth is accelerating

At the top level, the growth is strong and clear:

• Active clients: 1,244,996 (up 21.9%)
• Registered clients: 2.87 million (up 17%)

  
More South Africans are stepping into investing, and that continues to widen the base.

What becomes more interesting is what happens after that first step. Clients are funding accounts, returning regularly, and gradually increasing their participation. The relationship with investing is becoming something ongoing.

Investor behaviour is becoming the engine of growth

The numbers start to tell a different story when you follow the money:

That gap shows that existing clients are carrying more of the system than before. They’re contributing more, staying longer, and building with more intent. You can feel the difference between a platform that depends on new sign-ups and one that is sustained by the people already inside it.

The quality of participation is changing

There’s a point in any platform where activity starts to mature. It becomes less reactive and more deliberate.

You can see that shift in the small details:

• Retail outflows have decreased as a percentage of assets
• Revenue per client is increasing
• Cost per client is decreasing
• Revenue per active client: R159
• Cost to serve per client: R82
• Cost to acquire: R77 (down 35.4%)
•  Retail efficiency ratio: 52% (improved from 59%, and 87% three years ago) 

Revenue is growing faster than costs. In fact, across the period, revenue grew more than 11 times faster than operating expenses.

And in six months alone, Easy Group generated 84% of what it delivered in the full FY25 year.

Clients are adding more than they withdraw. They are staying engaged. They are expanding across products. That alignment reduces friction and allows the platform to scale more efficiently. 

Growth is deepening across products

Client behaviour is also showing up in how portfolios evolve:

• ZAR portfolios: R39.0 billion
• TFSA: R10.2 billion
• Global: R10.2 billion
• EasyRetire: R2.1 billion (up 97%)

The platform is expanding beyond a single product story

The story becomes more complete when you look at how clients are moving across the platform.

• EasyRetire Retail is attracting higher-quality, long-term capital
  Retail client assets reached R2.1 billion, up 97% Transfer clients are arriving with significantly larger balances and longer investment horizons
  
  
• EasyAssetManagement is scaling quickly behind the scenes
  Assets under management grew 96.1% to R2.18 billion. Early signs of a second engine forming alongside brokerage activity
  
  
• EasyETFs is gaining traction faster than expected
  Surpassed R2 billion in AUM in under 18 months. Shows how quickly product can scale when distribution is already in place
  
  
• EasyTrader is scaling, despite a one-off setback
  Funded clients: +270%
  Trades: +84%
  Nominal traded value: +291%
  
  
• EasyProperties continues to build gradually
  Client assets at R0.5 billion, up 21%. Adds a real-asset layer to portfolios, expanding diversification options.
  
  
• EasyCrypto reflects how clients move across asset classes
  Client assets at R1.1 billion, down 20%
  Shows responsiveness to market conditions rather than disengagement
  
  
• ZARU introduces a new financial rail
  A rand-backed stablecoin enabling instant, 24/7 value transfer
  Positions the platform at the intersection of traditional investing and digital assets
  
  
• Philippines expansion adds future scale not yet in the numbers
  Early-stage rollout with a pathway toward 500,000 users by 2027

What this means if you’re paying attention

If you’re paying attention, this starts to become more about knowing what to look for next.

1. Pay attention to where growth is coming from.
   When assets grow faster than the client base, it tells you that existing clients are driving more of the system.
   
   

2. Watch behaviour, not just headlines.
   Inflows, outflows, and consistency of investing show how clients are actually engaging over time.
   
   

3. Track depth of engagement.
   Look at how clients move across products. When users expand from one product into several, it usually points to increasing trust and a deeper relationship with the platform.
   
   

4.  Keep an eye on unit economics.
   Revenue per client rising alongside declining cost to serve points to a model that is scaling efficiently.
   
   

5.  Notice how much the system relies on new clients.
   The more a business depends on constant acquisition to grow, the more pressure it carries. When growth starts being supported by the existing base, the system tends to feel more stable.  

And then there’s a broader way to look at it.

• If you’re already a shareholder, this gives you a lens. You’re watching whether the quality of that growth is improving.

• If you’re not, it’s easy to focus on the visible parts. The client numbers. The big milestones. The launches. Those matter, but they’re only part of the picture.

So from here, the question becomes simple: Are clients continuing to show up in the same way?

Because when they do, the rest tends to follow.

Learn more:

• How to Read Financial Statements: What Investors Should Look For

• Our Financials
  
  

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