In the world of finance, large funding rounds are known to be for the mainstream players in the game. Securing $52 million in a round led by Valar Ventures and other fintech investors such as Speedinvest, who truly see the vision to drive our expansion and transform Europe’s financial industry, is an important step for us to realise our ambitious plans.
Valar Ventures validates Bitpanda’s vision
The journey that led to this announcement started one year ago when we entered a partnership with Speedinvest that was finalised and brought to paper earlier this year. One of the major projects was this Series A round, which was made possible by the incredible support of Speedinvest. The unusual past months during COVID-19 have been a hell of a ride. Doing fundraising during those times was challenging as everything had to be done via Zoom-calls. Getting big investors on board means you go into something resembling a business marriage. You have to share a common vision and believe in the same strategies but also work closely together, so the personal connection has to match as well. Teamwork is crucial and as part of the investment, Valar Ventures Founding Partner, Andrew McCormack, will join Bitpanda’s board. With Andrew’s extensive track record in growing digital champions like PayPal in its early years and supporting Peter Thiel during its IPO and eventual sale to eBay in 2002, we are more than confident in the choice. Valar has led investments in multiple European fintechs turned unicorns, such as Transferwise and the Germany-based digital bank, N26. With Valar, we have found the right partner for our big ambitions.
More countries, more team members and more products
Our focus is currently on expansion, as we have made our way to countries like France, Spain and Turkey since the beginning of this year. We plan to keep on growing in more European countries during this year and in 2021, bringing financial empowerment across borders and securing a new sense of financial culture. Innovative and dynamic tech calls for high-calibre talent to support growth; if there is any question what this looks like, 70+ new team members is a good hint, increasing Bitpanda’s size to more than 300 team members by the end of 2020 and continuing to rapidly scale thereafter.
Most importantly this funding round will help us to bring the Bitpanda platform and all our services to a new level. We are going to launch new, industry-leading products, including a completely new and innovative way of stock trading early next year. We will democratise investing and give everyone access to the financial markets, no matter their financial means. We want our users to have ownership of their financial future at their fingertips, easily and seamlessly, with the best and most unique features. Rest assured we will not lose focus as we will of course continue driving innovations in crypto. Bitpanda will become an investment platform for asset classes for everyone. We will provide education, empower our users to take their future in their own hands and remove all those barriers that prevent people from participating. This is the path that will take us to become the leading investment and trading platform in Europe, driven by a growing team of bright, forward-thinking talent.
Thank you to the fantastic Bitpanda team, for the trust of our partners and investors and for the incredible support from our community. We have an exciting journey ahead!
