European cryptocurrency exchange Bitpanda has just raised $263 million in a new round of funding that now values the exchange at $4.1 million. This is 3 times the value of Bitpanda when it did its last fund raise, only 5 months ago.
According to an article this morning on CNBC, the funding round was led by Peter Thiel backed Valar Ventures. This makes it the third time that Valar Ventures has backed Bitpanda, helping it to an almost $500 million valuation.
Eric Demuth, the CEO and co-founder of Bitpanda said of the fund raise:
“I don’t like to do fundraising. It’s very time-consuming.”
“When you have partners you have a close connection with, and they have deep pockets, you don’t have to do the whole roadshow. Valar wanted to double down and we wanted to stay with them,” he added. “It was quite an easy process.”
Bitpanda is a brokerage firm along the lines of eToro and Revolut. It allows its users to trade cryptocurrencies and precious metals. It has also started testing a new service that would allow its customers to trade stocks, even after hours and at weekends.
A major way in which Bitpanda hopes to offer a different product to its competition is by licensing its technology to other companies, such as banks and fintech firms.
According to CEO Demuth, Bitpanda has been profitable for the last five years, a fact that is a rarity these days, when many fintech companies are operating at quite heavy losses. Demuth believes that many companies are raising money in order to take advantage of the hype surrounding cryptocurrencies.
The hype is quite real at the present time. Bitcoin is regaining much of the ground lost after its recent 50% + correction, and the cryptocurrency market cap has once again hit $2 trillion, a figure not seen since the start of the correction back in May.
Bitpanda has more than 3 million users, and operates solely in Europe. It plans to use the money form the raise to expand into key markets such as France, Spain, Italy, and Portugal.
Disclaimer: This article is provided for informational purposes only. It is not offered or intended to be used as legal, tax, investment, financial, or other advice.
