Tickmill's Ingmar Mattus: The "Mindset Problem" Killing CFD Brokers Who Won't Diversify

Ingmar Mattus, who co-founded Tickmill in 2014, believes the brokerage industry has become far harder to build in and far less forgiving of firms that misjudge risk. Speaking alongside TradersYard co-founder Manuel Sonnleithner, the investor argued that a CFD broker launching today no longer competes only with other CFD brokers, but with futures brokers, equity brokers offering leveraged options and US prediction-market platforms such as Kalshi and Polymarket, all chasing the same retail client.

Mattus listed four reasons why so many established names have recently sold up or shut down. The first is risk management: client flow has become harder to hedge as retail traders act in coordinated groups, sometimes thousands strong, placing identical trades that are too large to offset externally. The second is regulation, with ESMA's 2018 CFD leverage restrictions cited as the clearest example of a change that cut European profitability and pushed larger firms out of the region. The third is competition from adjacent products. The fourth, he said, is a mindset problem.

Because CFDs generate more revenue per client than exchange-traded alternatives, Mattus said owners find it hard to add thinner-margin products even when demand has clearly moved that way, arguing that what the market wants should take precedence over a broker's own preferences. He also pointed to a speed gap, noting that Kalshi can roll out a new product in minutes while a typical CFD or equities broker needs months to add an asset class. Beyond government rules, he flagged non-regulatory friction, saying it is now much harder even to open a bank account for a newly established brokerage.

TradersYard and the in-house route

TradersYard, which began as a trading platform in 2013 and was rebuilt in 2020 as a trader social network, drew Andromeda Capital Partners' backing in 2023 after talks that started in autumn 2022, following a meeting at the World of Trading conference in Frankfurt. Sonnleithner said the deal was split into an initial EUR 3.5 million tranche and a milestone-based EUR 1.5 million, totalling EUR 5 million, with one condition: no third-party platforms, everything built in-house. The firm reached public beta in early 2025, roughly 18 months after the investment, leaning on 20,000 traders already active on its network, and has stayed at around 15 staff. It also secured a CME data distribution licence that the exchange had stopped granting to pure prop trading providers.

Sonnleithner said his Discord community repeatedly asks for MetaTrader 5, but warned that relying on third-party platforms leaves little margin once affiliate and platform costs are deducted from revenue-to-payout ratios. Mattus added that a prop firm running almost entirely on MT5 offers little acquisition value because clients can switch providers the next day.

Andromeda's portfolio includes Tickmill, Amsterdam-based Change Securities, which holds both a MiCA crypto licence and a full MiFID investment firm licence, Chicago futures and options introducing broker MetroTrade, launched in 2024 and registered with the CFTC, and quantitative risk services provider Boltzmann Research. The vehicle typically takes an initial 5 to 10 percent stake with an option to move to majority ownership, which Mattus said gives it the influence to build shared technology.

Sonnleithner expects further consolidation, citing Meta's crackdown on prop firm advertising and a discount race that leaves little room to absorb commodity shocks. Mattus, a personal investor in Plus500, IG and eToro, expects sector regulation within two to three years and broker-led rather than venture-led acquisitions of prop firms. Andromeda is developing a B2B version of TradersYard's technology aimed primarily at brokerages, alongside further licence expansion for Change Securities.