The round was led by HV Holtzbrinck Ventures, one of Europe’s most successful venture capital firms. Velocity Capital also supported the round together with a number of influential angel investors, including former Booking.com CMO Arthur Kosten and Thierry Schaap, co-founder of online brokerage firm BinckBank. The fintech startup also opened the pre-registration of its inaugural crowdfunding campaign on Seedrs, giving over one million BUX users the opportunity to own shares in the business.

BUX is an international community-based trading app on a mission to enable anyone to explore the fascinating world of financial markets. The Company has already been rolled out across eight European countries, with over 200,000 users from the UK alone. Though headquartered in Amsterdam, BUX has partnered with established British-German broker ayondo Markets Ltd, who is licensed by the UK’s Financial Conduct Authority (FCA). Consequently, BUX users can trade with real money which is subject to the FCA regulations and their funds are covered by the UK’s Financial Services Compensation Scheme.

The simple yet engaging app has been developed in order to enable ‘BUXsters’ to be plugged into the markets all day. Primarily aimed at those with no experience with trading, 80% of BUXsters have had little to no experience with stock trading before joining the app. Therefore all new users are required to start trading with fake money in a risk free environment that mirrors the real markets. Only when they feel comfortable with the tools provided and the dynamics of the markets they move on to investing with real money. To encourage knowledge sharing users can also interact with like-minded traders on group forums or follow on of the many semi-professional channels. As a result, BUX has cultivated an intelligent, engaged community eager to learn more about the industry.

In addition to educating a new generation of investors, BUX places a huge emphasis on responsible trading as part of its core values. It is the first company in the trading world who have introduced a number of strict rules to ensure BUXsters don’t take irresponsible risks. These mitigations include:

• Diversification: BUXsters cannot invest the entire value of their account in one stock - they have to spread their risk
• Risk management: BUXsters cannot lose more than the amount invested
• Experience: All new BUXsters have to start with funBUX - a virtual currency
• Limited leverage: Does not offer ridiculously high leverages
• Transparency: BUX always clearly discloses transaction costs and they don’t make money off the spread as there are no bid and ask prices; everyone trades on one price

BUX intends to use the funds primarily to expand their product offering to be able to create a full suite of apps by 2020; these will range from short term trading, to long-term investing. Over the next year, BUX is aiming to launch a mid to long term investing app, in contrary to the current app which is focussed on the short term, as well as a crypto app due to substantial user interest.

Ultimately, by 2020 BUX aims to be the single destination for those who would like to do more with their money. Whether it is to explore the stock markets by short term trading or whether it’s to invest for the long term. For every investment need there will be a BUX solution.

Barbod Namini from HV Holtzbrinck Ventures, commented: "BUX is on a mission to revolutionise the investment industry; making it more accessible and appealing to beginner investors, whilst educating and safeguarding them from its potential pitfalls. HV Holtzbrinck Ventures is delighted to be backing BUX in their next phase of growth.”

Nick Bortot, CEO and founder, said: “Since the crisis rocked the world in 2008, the public, and particularly the millennial generation, have become more aware and interested in the direct consequences the financial world can have. Inseparable from politics and the world economy, the financial markets are the most influential instruments in the world, which makes exploring the financial markets extremely compelling. At BUX, we want to give everyone the opportunity to go out and discover that for themselves.”

“We are committed to constantly developing the user experience by expanding our range of products over the coming years, which this round will help us do. We are incredibly grateful from the support and interest we have received from the venture capital and angel communities, and eagerly anticipate to taking it to the crowd and existing BUXsters.”