Bitpanda founders Christian Trummer, Paul Klanschek and Eric Demuth. Image: Bitpanda
The company has more than tripled in value since it became Austria’s first unicorn in March.
Crypto trading platform Bitpanda is now valued at $4.1bn after raising $263m in Series C funding to further expand its team and services.
This comes after it became Austria’s first unicorn in March, when it was valued at $1.2bn after its Series B funding round.
Bitpanda’s latest investment was led by US-based Valar Ventures, the fund co-founded by Peter Thiel. There was also participation from new investors including British billionaire hedge fund manager Alan Howard and Redo Ventures. Existing investors that participated included LeadBlock Partners and Jump Capital.
Founded in 2014 by Eric Demuth, Paul Klanschek and Christian Trummer, Bitpanda started off as a cryptocurrency trading platform. Since then, it has expanded its offerings to include commission-free fractional stocks and precious metals.
The company now has around 3m users and says it is “on track” to increase its customer base by six times year on year with a sevenfold increase in revenue expected in 2021 over last year’s levels.
“With more than 1.2m 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,” said Andrew McCormack, founding partner of Valar.
Expansion plans
The fresh funding will be used to double down on Bitpanda’s expansion, with plans for new European offices and investment in technologies such as blockchain. The Vienna-headquartered company recently opened a remote-first blockchain R&D hub to hire talent from across Europe and leverage the power of this tech in its future offerings.
“We started Bitpanda in 2014 with a clear vision: to bring investing closer to everyone, everywhere. We wouldn’t be here today without the efforts of our talented team members who are constantly rolling up their sleeves to make things happen,” said Demuth, co-founder and CEO.
“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.”
Bitpanda currently has more than 500 employees in its offices and tech hubs across eight European cities: Vienna, Barcelona, Berlin, Kraków, London, Madrid, Milan and Paris.
In a recent hiring spree, the company has brought some key names into its fold, including former Ayden and MessageBird executive Lindsay Ross as chief HR officer, former Revolut and Uber executive Irina Scarlat as chief growth officer, former Farfetch executive João Luís as VP of engineering, and former N26 executive Michael Keskerides as VP of product.
