Nicholas Hungerford, co-founder of Nutmeg, dies at 43

Nicholas Hungerford, co-founder of the U.K. digital wealth management firm Nutmeg, died Tuesday of complications associated with cancer. He was 43 years old. 

The Bristol, U.K. native helped found Nutmeg in 2011. JPMorgan Chase bought the fintech for close to £700 million in 2021.  

Hungerford was diagnosed with a rare form of bone cancer, Ewing's Sarcoma, around the start of 2020, after pains in his right thigh prompted an operation to remove his femur. The Nutmeg co-founder detailed his nearly three-year battle with his illness in an article for the Telegraph two weeks ago. He wrote that he had two to three months left to live. 

"In a strange way, the knowledge that my life is coming to an end makes me 'privileged.' It has given me the opportunity to really live, to make the most of every moment," Hungerford wrote. "It's not the pain or fear of death that worries me most, it's leaving my wife and my toddler daughter."

In 2022, Hungerford and his wife, Nancy, founded a charity in their daughter's name, Elizabeth's Smile, to support children who have lost a parent to a terminal illness. 

"Elizabeth is just two-and-a-half, and she will have to grow up without me," Hungerford wrote in the Telegraph. "The thought of missing her first day of school, of not giving a speech at her wedding, buries me with emotion."

After earning a degree from the University of Exeter, Hungerford completed two brief stints as a wealth manager at the London-based firms Barclays and Brewin Dolphin Securities.

It was at the Stanford Graduate School of Business that Hungerford got the idea for Nutmeg, which he pitched to investors in Silicon Valley after completing his degree in 2010.

At the time, Hungerford told the BBC that he was low on funds — sleeping on the floor of a friend's house and working out of his garage — after having failed to sell the idea for his early fintech investing platform to investors 45 times. 

"Some investors said they liked the idea, but that I couldn't do it. Others said they didn't like the idea, and some simply said I wasn't good enough," Hungerford told the BBC. "It was really brutal, I hugely questioned myself."

It was the 46th pitch that paid off. Tim Draper, founder of Draper Fisher Jurvetson (now called Threshold Ventures), provided the investment.

Nutmeg became one of the first digital wealth management firms upon launching in London in early 2011. The company was criticized for its business model, funding practices and profits. It nevertheless attracted investments from big names like Goldman Sachs, Hong Kong-based Convoy Global Holdings and Taiwan-based Taipei Fubon Bank.

The $3.7 trillion-asset JPMorgan Chase bought Nutmeg 10 years after its founding, with the goal of expanding mobile banking services for retail investors in the U.K. Hungerford would go on to be a partner at Portage Ventures, a Toronto-based venture capital firm focused on global fintechs.

At the time of its sale, Nutmeg served more than 14,000 customers and managed over £3.5 billion ($4.9 billion). 

On Thursday, Nutmeg listed on its website that it serves more than 200,000 customers and has over £4.5 billion ($5.9 billion) in assets under management. 

"We will always remember Nick for his passion for this business and, as Nutmeg continues under the stewardship of J.P. Morgan, we will never forget his founding mission — making investing an activity in reach of everyone," a Nutmeg company spokesperson said in a statement.