Peter Thiel-backed Bitpanda raised $263 million in its latest Series C funding round.

Austrian cryptocurrency broker Bitpanda announced today (August 17, 2021) its raise of $263 million in a Series C round led by Valar Ventures, with the participation of Alan Howard and REDO Ventures, as well as existing investors LeadBlock Partners and Jump Capital. Valar Ventures is the venture capital firm co-founded by U.S. tech billionaire Peter Thiel. The round valued Bitpanda at $4.1 billion, up from $1.2 billion in March, when the startup raised $170 million. (Reuters)

The aggregate amount of funds raised by the firm is nearly $500 million.

Hypergrowth

Bitpanda was founded in 2014 as a crypto-trading company by Christian Trummer, Paul Klanschek and Eric Demuth.

Since those early days it has morphed into a platform that allows users to trade in commission-free fractional stocks, cryptocurrencies or precious metals – with any amount of money.

• 3 million users
• Workforce of more than 500 people
• Physical talent hubs and offices in eight cities across Europe
• Remote-first Blockchain Research & Development Hub
• It also licenses its technology out as a “white label” offering
• Profitable for last five years
• Revenues could rise 7X in 2021

According to CNBC, which quoted Eric Demuth, Bitpanda’s CEO and co-founder, Bitpanda plans to offer round-the-clock trading in stocks by the end of the year.

Use of funds

Bitpanda will use the latest funding to expand hiring of new talent as it continues to scale up its operations.

It also intends to push for international expansion and growth by launching new products in new markets.

The firm told Reuters that as of now there were no plans for an IPO. However, Demuth said he would prefer the direct listing route followed by companies such Coinbase (NASDAQ: COIN) , RobinHood (NASDAQ: HOOD) and Wise (LON: WISE).

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