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Vienna, Austria-based fintech unicorn, Bitpanda, which provides an exchange platform for digital assets such as cryptocurrency, has raised an additional €10M as an extension of its Series B round of funding. Earlier in March 2021, the company had raised $170M (approx €142.56M) led by Valar Ventures and DST Global in its Series B round at a valuation of $1.2B (approx €1B) – becoming Austria’s first unicorn.

Investors in this round

This extension round saw participation from crypto & fintech investors Jump Capital and market makers Winterntermute Trading. In addition, LeadBlock Partners also invested in Bitpanda to strengthen their institutional offering and position in Europe.

David Chreng-Messembourg, General Partner & co-founder of LeadBlock Partners, believes, “Financial institutions have been closely monitoring the digital assets ecosystem for the past years. Today, the combination of better knowledge, a move into Bitcoin by corporates (i.e. MicroStrategy, Square, Tesla) and the acceleration of retail investing into digital assets, has pushed traditional financial players to facilitate access to digital assets for their customers.”

Though there are a lot of platforms operating in this sector, Bitpanda’s pace of adoption could be the reason why investors invested in the company. Earlier in September 2020, Bitpanda raised its Series A funding of $52M (approx. €44M) led by Valar Ventures – a VC firm backed by Peter Thiel. Speedinvest also participated in this round.

Funds for institutional offering of cryptos in Europe

Institutional demand for cryptocurrencies is on the rise, as the capital inflow and demand for investment products is getting more traction. In the first quarter of 2021, institutional capital inflow was about $4.5B as compared to $3.9B in the same timeframe last year.

According to the press release, this strategic investment strengthens Bitpanda’s institutional offering in Europe ranging from referral solutions all the way to custom build comprehensive tech integrations. Services will be integrated into apps and will allow users to invest in all assets – whether it’s a fintech, multi-bank, robo advisor, traditional bank or online platform.

Eric Demuth, co-founder & CEO of Bitpanda says, “Bitcoin and digital assets have proven that they are here to stay. It has been the best performing asset class of the last decade and now institutional investors want to participate the same way as retail investors. We are ready to meet this demand, and are fully regulated as a company based in the EU with offices and experts around the continent.”

Invest in what you believe in

Founded in 2014 by Christian Trummer, Eric Demuth, and Paul Klanschek, Bitpanda is a digital assets platform used to facilitate the buying and selling of cryptocurrencies. The platform claims to remove complicated financial barriers by harnessing the innovative power of digitised assets and blockchain technology. It also offers low fees, 24/7 trading, and real-time settlements. 

The trading platform also possesses a PSD2 (European regulation for electronic payment services) payment service provider license. Users can currently trade Bitcoin, Ethereum, gold, and over 20 other digital assets via its platform. Since its inception, the company has more than 2 million users worldwide and about 330 team members.