Crypto-broker BitPanda has become Austria's first fintech unicorn after securing $170 million in a Series B round led by Valar Ventures, with participation from the partners of DST Global.
The latest round comes just six months after a successful $52m Series A, and gives BitPanda a valuation of $1.2bn.
Since closing its Series A, Bitpanda has increased profits, with the revenue in the first two months of 2021 surpassing the total revenue in 2020, and has seen its user base grow from 1.3 to over 2 million registered users. BitPanda's desktop site and mobile app provides access to more than 50 investment assets, including crypto and precious metals.
The firm plans to add new asset classes like stocks and ETFS over the coming year and is currently taking pre-orders for a new Visa debit card that combines all assets like cryptocurrencies, fiat and precious metals into one card in real time.
Eric Demuth, co-founder and CEO of Bitpanda, says: “Retail investors will soon be able to access an even larger range of digital assets, and we already have plans in place to bring our offer to several new markets.”
Bitpanda expanded into France, Spain, Turkey, Italy and Poland in 2020. In December it established a tech innovation hub in Krakow with the objective of doubling the workforce. Demuth says plans are afoot to form tech hubs and offices in Madrid, Barcelona, London, Paris and Berlin.