Meet Matt Acheson, Chief Product Officer at Ctrl Alt

Tell us about yourself, Matt

 
Matt Acheson is the Chief Product Officer (CPO) at Ctrl Alt, the B2B Expert Solutions Provider for Alternative Assets. He’s passionate about building start-ups from ground zero. 

With a career that spans prominent companies in the financial services sector, Matt has garnered a unique blend of expertise. He served as the Head of Brokerage Operations at the leading neobank, Revolut where he played a pivotal role in building and scaling the operations of their trading platform. Matt then went on to be a day one employee of social investing platform, Shares.io holding the position of Director of Business Operations and again building and scaling their operation from the ground up. 

As the Chief Product Officer at Ctrl Alt, Matt is passionate about driving innovation and empowering clients to navigate the complexities of alternative asset investment with Ctrl Alt’s suite of solutions.

Tell us about your career journey so far

 
I started out as a financial consultant working in Banks across London and Dublin, my projects focused on regulatory implementation and remediation projects. Consulting was a perfect start for me as it was very much being dropped in the deep end, going out on client sites and being pushed to add value immediately. From there I did a bit more consulting under my own company in Dublin leading a project for AIB in Dublin. 

Consulting was great to kick start my career and gain experience and responsibility much quicker than if I was a graduate in a predefined programme at one of these banks but after 4 years it felt like my personal growth curve plateaued so wanted to find a role that would challenge me further. 

At that point, I joined Revolut and moved to London full-time. Revolut was the ideal next step, being surrounded by really like-minded people who continually pushed forward executing for the business. At the time I joined, Revolut was building their trading platform allowing their users to invest in US stocks like Apple or Tesla. My role was to establish and run our operating model and set up our brokerage teams.

Following that, I joined as a day 1 employee of the social investment platform Shares.io as Director of Business Operations. Post Revolut I wanted to move one step closer in the life cycle of a startup, while Revolut was a great experience, you weren’t exposed to the risks and challenges of very early-stage business – something I craved. At Shares, I focused on building out the operations of our multiple business lines, enabling us to launch a crypto business in the EU and investment businesses in both the UK and the EU.

What makes you interested in the world of FinTech? 

 
I love the dynamism of working within the Fintech space – the need to push forward and continually innovate makes it a great space to work in. 

For me, the opportunity to democratise investing across all 3 of the fintech I have worked for is something I am passionate about – building products that challenge the status quo.

Tell us why you joined Ctrl Alt

 
When making any career move I always like to focus on the impact that comes with it, firstly what impact does that business have on the market, are they innovating? Do I think they have the team to execute this properly? 

And secondly, I think about what impact I can have at the firm given my background. On both counts. 

Ctrl Alt was a no-brainer, opening up alternatives in the same way early investment apps opened up access to equities – Ctrl Alt felt like it was at the inception of the next wave of innovation. In terms of the team and my impact, I felt like it was a natural progression based on my previous experience and that I could add value to the business immediately, complementing the skillset of the existing team.

What most excites you about Ctrl Alt? 

 
For a long time, a culture of exclusivity and restricted entry requirements have kept the barriers too high for investing in alternative assets. I’m proud to be part of a company changing that with such a sophisticated suite of product solutions.

Allowing access to assets via our product solutions to make investments more tangible and easy to understand how returns are generated really resonates with me. 

Say, Ctrl Alt gives investors access to a London property that’s purchased and then rented out – an investor can understand where the returns come from every month or when the value of the asset rises and falls in line with the property market. As opposed to an investment into a traditional stock, it’s hard to conceptualise why the price has dropped or risen, or why the dividends change from quarter to quarter.

Can you tell us a bit more about Ctrl Alts products? 

 
Put simply, we’re building the ‘one-stop shop’ for Alternative Asset solutions. We sit as the expert conduit between both asset supply and distribution. Whether you’re a fintech looking to offer alternative assets to your eligible customers or an asset owner looking to enable fractional investing in your asset, we have the solution for you. 

Right now, I’m most excited about our ‘Embedded’ product. It allows the likes of fintechs to utilise our API solutions to embed alternative asset investing into their platforms to give their eligible customers access. 

Imagine opening up a fintech app and being able to invest in alternative assets powered by Ctrl Alt alongside their existing suite of products in the same user experience you love and trust.

What’s coming up for Ctrl Alt in 2024? 

 
As mentioned above, we’re currently focused on our Embedded product with some exciting pilots in the pipeline that we’ll share more about soon. 

We’ve also been growing our teams in both the UK and Ireland offices so I’m really looking forward to more expansion here and beyond.

Where can people follow the Ctrl Alt journey and learn more? 

 
The best place to keep up to date with all things Ctrl Alt is via our LinkedIn here. 

If you’re interested in learning more about our products, see more here and do reach out to us to request a demo. 

About Ctrl Alt

 
Ctrl Alt was launched in 2020 by Matt Ong (formerly of Morgan Stanley and Credit Suisse) to make investing in alternative assets more accessible for the individual investor. The alternative asset platform empowers fintechs and investment platforms to provide their customers with opportunities to invest in tokenised assets such as green energy, property, and more while making it easier for asset holders to fractionalise assets as a means to raise capital.

By bringing together the needs of fintechs and investment platforms with those of asset holders, Ctrl Alt is enabling access to a previously exclusive world. It aims to bring a new arm of investing to the fintech and investment platforms tool belt by blending industry expertise in alternative assets with financial technology.

In a recent funding round, Ctrl Alt secured £2.2 million in investment, led by Forward Partners and Middlegame Ventures and supported by a group of notable Angel Investors and follow-on funds, including Enterprise Ireland, Algorand Ventures, 365.fintech, Syndicate Room, Marc Cohen (Unbundled VC), OmidAshtari (ex-Google, ex-President Citymapper) and Alex Macdonald (Co-Founder of sequel Velocity Black).

Ctrl Alt’s team is based in London and Dundalk, Ireland. The team is composed of financial and product experts including alumni from Morgan Stanley, Credit Suisse and Revolut. 

As with all investing, capital is at risk.