Goldwise Launches to Modernise Physical Precious Metals Investing

WHY THIS MATTERS: The launch of Goldwise signals a crucial moment in the modernization of classic asset classes, demonstrating how embedded finance is permeating even the most traditionally analogue segments of wealth management. For decades, direct ownership of physical precious metals required high capital minimums or reliance on financial derivatives like ETFs that sacrifice genuine ownership for liquidity. Goldwise’s dual approach—a fractional trading app alongside its ‘Precious Metals-as-a-Service’ API—is the true industry significance. It bypasses the clunky operations of traditional bullion dealers and allows banks and wealth platforms to instantly integrate physical gold and silver into their existing client portfolios. This democratisation fundamentally alters the competitive landscape, making precious metals a standard, accessible diversification tool rather than an exclusive commodity, forcing incumbent providers to rapidly digitise or risk losing a high-value client segment.

Goldwise, the UK fintech founded by former Royal Mint executives, launched its trading platform, pioneering a new way for savers and investors to buy, manage and sell fractional physical gold, silver, platinum and palladium through a simple, secure mobile app.

Precious metals have long been seen as a reliable store of value, with gold delivering strong long-term returns and often behaving differently to other major asset classes. However, the way people access them has not kept pace with modern investing. Today, investors are typically faced with two imperfect options: financial products such as ETFs or tokenised gold, which offer price exposure but not direct ownership; or traditional bullion dealers, which often involve outdated buying processes, high mark-ups, large minimum purchases and limited flexibility.

Goldwise has been founded to modernise physical precious metals investing and to solve these challenges. At the core is the Goldwise Engine, a proprietary enterprise-grade infrastructure, covering customer onboarding, institutional pricing and execution, payments, allocation and custody and recordkeeping that connects directly to the global precious metals ecosystem, delivered through a single scalable platform. The technology enables fractional trading of investment-grade London Bullion Market Association (LBMA)-approved bars, from as little as £5 (0.001 troy ounces), with 24/7 trading, conditional orders and real-time portfolio tracking.

The Goldwise Engine powers two distribution channels: the Goldwise App, an intuitive direct-to-consumer mobile experience, and Goldwise Connect, a precious-metals-as-a-service infrastructure solution that enables wealth platforms and financial institutions to embed physical precious metals trading in a single turn-key solution. This dual-distribution model positions Goldwise as both a consumer fintech and a core infrastructure provider for the wider wealth ecosystem.

At launch, customers benefit from 12 months free vaulting, with no hidden charges in quoted prices and clearly disclosed trading fees. To keep customer assets secure, all customer physical metal holdings are reconciled daily and stored in insured, audited institutional vaults – the same facilities used by major metals banks and brokers – in global locations including London, Zurich and New York. Customer funds are safeguarded under FCA-regulated e-money arrangements.

Goldwise’s founders, Jatin Patel and Gareth Tucker, previously led the transformation and scaling of The Royal Mint’s precious metals division, building its platform, driving significant growth and launching a gold-backed exchange-traded product.

They identified a clear gap in the market, with growing demand for physical precious metals alongside persistent customer frustration with outdated, bullion dealer-led models and the lack of an offering on wealth platforms – leading them to build Goldwise.

Gareth Tucker, Co-founder of Goldwise, said: “Investing in most asset classes has become simple, digital and accessible – but physical precious metals have been left behind. Customers still face outdated buying experiences, marked-up pricing and limited trading functionality. Goldwise was built to change that, making precious metals investing easy, secure and efficient for all.”

The launch comes amid growing demand for physical precious metals, driven by inflationary pressures, high government debt, geopolitical conflicts and sustained central bank buying; coupled with increasing industrial use including aerospace and renewable technologies.

“Precious metals are not just a safe haven in times of uncertainty or a source of strong historical returns – they are much more than that. Embedded in nearly all modern technologies, they are truly the foundations of our future.” said Tucker.

Jatin Patel, Co-founder of Goldwise, added: “One of the biggest frustrations for savers and investors is that physical precious metals are rarely available through their existing banking or wealth platforms in amounts and fees they can afford. Goldwise is here to change that.

“We’re starting in the UK and will scale across Europe, US and then Asia, with the ambition for Goldwise to become the underlying infrastructure to connect the physical precious metals ecosystem and power global distribution and access to physical precious metals.”

Goldwise is now available to UK customers via its iOS app, with Android and web platforms launching shortly. Over the next 18 months, the company plans to expand its offering to include whole coins and bars for both vaulting and physically delivery, automated reoccurring purchases, alongside customers earning interest on their uninvested cash and a yield on their precious metals holdings.

Goldwise will soon be launching a crowdfunding campaign on Crowdcube, providing investors with the opportunity to participate in the company’s next stage of growth.

For more information about Goldwise, visit www.goldwise.com.

FF NEWS TAKE: This launch moves the needle less for the retail investor and more for the B2B infrastructure space. The real innovation is Goldwise Connect, positioning them as an essential Wealth-as-a-Service provider. This turns physical precious metals from a standalone purchase into a portfolio feature. We should now watch which existing UK wealth management platforms—those focused on multi-asset diversification—will be the first to announce their partnership with Goldwise Connect to embed this capability. Success lies in API adoption, not just app downloads.