Net sales rose by 35% over the first quarter from £5.6bn to £7.4bn at the end of the quarter, according to new data.

Gross sales increased 19% on Q4 to over £19bn as direct platforms took advantage of stock market growth and the ISA season in the first quarter, according to the data from Fundscape.

Direct platform assets grew by 0.7% (£2.7bn) to end the quarter at £405bn.

Gemma Maher, head of market insights at Fundscape expects 2025 to be a strong year for direct platforms.

She said: “Of course, Q1 is only the beginning of the story and what happens in April will have an impact both on performance and sentiment for the rest of 2025. Direct players will have to work harder to convince some customers to invest their hard-earned cash. But where there is risk there is also opportunity, and with the growth of cash solutions we have started to see clients use them as a tool to manage market volatility.

“With interest rates coming down and the growing appeal of undervalued UK stocks, it could turn out to be a good year for the direct industry (barring any Trumptastic moves of course).” 

Top 5 direct platform by net sales, Q1 2025

Source: Fundscape, 12 May 2025

Hargreaves Lansdown was the highest performing direct platform for the quarter with its strongest gross and net sales figures. Alone the platform delivered 40% of total gross sales (£7,592m) for the whole D2C platform market (£19.361m) in the first quarter.

Interactive Investor, Vanguard and AJ Bell also all had a strong quarter, delivering net sales rations of around 50%.

InvestEngine moved into fifth place for net sales and delivered its best numbers yet in the quarter.