Austria-based trading platform Bitpanda has supposedly earned the title of Austria unicorn after closing a Series B round of $170 million, which pushed the firm’s valuation to $1.2 billion.
Bitpanda launched in 2014 as a platform that lets users easily buy Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies but will now look to diversify its offering after surpassing the $1 billion valuation mark.
According to a report on Tech Crunch, Bitpanda will expand its platform to accommodate a wider variety of assets, giving the public access to not just cryptocurrencies or precious metals but also any established stock they hope to add to their portfolio.
The Series B round was led by Valar Ventures, a fund backed by German-American billionaire entrepreneur, and venture capitalist, Peter Thiel.
Bitpanda also partnered with some officials from DST Global (Yuri Milner’s fund) whose identities are not revealed. The two companies that Bitpanda partnered with, Valar Ventures and DST Global, both have a record of assisting crypto startups like Robinhood.
While the former has partnered with Bitpanda in the past in the $52 million Series A, DST just became a new investor in Bitpanda.
According to the CEO of the company, Eric Demuth, Bitpanda, has a goal of “shifting to become a pan-investment platform, not just a crypto broker.” The company also plans to tap into Europe’s large market through its investors. Already less than 10% of the country’s population own stocks in Bitpanda but that is not the end.
Concerning this area of focus, Demuth said, “We are profitable, and we have been for four years, but in September we changed strategy and wanted to become ‘the’ investment platform for all of Europe.”
He continued, “We needed more partners and more capital to get more top talent and this is why we did the Series A last year. Then over the past two months, we talked to our investors and said what do you think, it seems like there is some momentum. They said ‘we are in.” No roadshow needed, we will help you. We will call our contacts and they’ll join, too.”
While the Neobroker, Bitpanda offers services for other assets, it deals majorly on cryptocurrency with Bitcoin trading record surpassing other digital currencies.
In a related development, Bitpanda recently revealed plans for a new global cryptocurrency exchange, “Bitpanda Global Exchange (Bitpanda GE)”, and an Initial Exchange Offering (IEO) for its ecosystem token.
Featured Image: Bitpanda founders Paul Klanschek and Eric Demuth via DiePress
