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Austria’s first unicorn now valued at $4.1B after $263M raise, UK expansion plan on cards

Austria’s digital investment platform, the country’s first unicorn, Bitpanda has bagged $263 million (nearly £190 million) in Series C funding, which values it at $4.1 billion (nearly £3 billion). This round has come just months after the company attained unicorn status. It was led by Valar Ventures along with the participation of Alan Howard and REDO Ventures and existing investors LeadBlock Partners and Jump Capital.

UK expansion plans

Headquartered in Vienna, Bitpanda now has a diverse team of over 500 people who represent over 50 nationalities and physical tech hubs and offices in 8 cities across Europe, including Vienna, Barcelona, Berlin, Krakow, London, Madrid, Milan, and Paris. Recently, it announced the opening of its remote-first Blockchain Research & Development hub, focused on uniting talent around Europe to build state-of-the-art technologies that leverage blockchain for the future, and it plans to open new offices in Europe.

Eric Demuth, Co-Founder & CEO of Bipanda, said: “The future of Bitpanda is being a number one investment platform in Europe for everyone. International expansion and growth are our key priorities: we’ll keep building the team, opening new offices, and launching new products as we design for scale and optimise for growth. This also means strengthening Bitpanda’s position in existing markets – such as in the DACH region, Spain, France, Italy, and Poland, and also entering new markets, such as the UK or the markets in Central and Eastern Europe.”

Appoints key executives

Bitpanda will use the funds to strengthen its team and design the organisation for scale while doubling down on state-of-the-art technology, international expansion and growth. Also, four key executive hires have joined the team to shape the future growth trajectory of Bitpanda. The new appointees are Lindsay Ross, ex-Adyen and MessageBird, as Chief HR Officer; Irina Scarlat, ex-Revolut and Uber, as Chief Growth Officer; João Luís, ex-Farfetch, as VP of Engineering; and Michael Keskerides, ex-N26, as VP Product.

Eric continued: “We’re grateful to share our journey with these incredible people — and that’s why a key area of focus for us is to keep strengthening our team by bringing onboard world-class talent. We’re also grateful for the vote of confidence received from our investors, old and new, in this investment round. We look forward to working together as we shape the future of finance and grow Bitpanda into the #1 investment platform in Europe and beyond”.

Andrew McCormack, Founding Partner of Valar Ventures, said: “We believed in Bitpanda’s potential from the beginning and we are impressed by the results that Eric, Paul, Christian and the Bitpanda team have achieved. With more than 1.2 million users acquired in the first half of 2021, impressive net revenue growth and world-class executive hires, Bitpanda stands as the living proof that hypergrowth can be achieved in a sustainable way. We’re excited to further work together to bring the world of investing at the fingertips of everyone, anywhere.”

David Chreng-Messembourg, General Partner and Co-founder of LeadBlock Partners, said: “In this increasingly competitive market, many businesses are growing, some are profitable, but very few achieve hypergrowth in a sustainable way, and become market leaders. Bitpanda is certainly one of them. Having collaborated closely with Eric, Paul, Christian and the Bitpanda team, I was continuously impressed by their ability to innovate, to attract the best talents, and to execute on their vision. We look forward to continuing this exciting journey with them.”

On a growth trajectory

Founded by Eric Demuth, Paul Klanschek and Christian Trummer in 2014, Bitpanda started as a crypto-trading company. It grew into an investment platform that gives everyone the freedom and flexibility to invest in such as commission-free fractional stocks, cryptocurrencies or precious metals from as little as $1.

With 3 million users, Bitpanda is one of the fastest-growing fintech companies in Europe. The company is on track to achieve 6x customer growth year over year, while their revenues will increase sevenfold in 2021 as compared with the previous year.

Since it became a unicorn, Bitpanda has made significant progress towards becoming a leading investment platform. In April, the company announced it is expanding its product offering with commission-free stocks that users can invest in 24/7. In June, it tapped into the potential of the B2B market with Bitpanda While Label, opening its infrastructure to fintechs or banks that want to offer trading to their clients.

The post Austria’s first unicorn now valued at $4.1B after $263M raise, UK expansion plan on cards appeared first on UKTN (UK Tech News).

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