Bitpanda rakes in $170M in fund raiser
2 min readTL;DR Breakdown
- Bitpanda gets a development boost as it gathered $170 million from fund raiser
- The firm sets its sight on the diversified market
- Eyes international markets and exposure.
Founded in Austria in 2014, Bitpanda has taken a step further in its development, raking about $170 million in its Series B fundraiser event. What this means for the organization which started out as a crypto broker, is that its valuation has now risen above $1.2 billion.
The latest Series B funding comes as a huge improvement to the Series A fundraiser event which took place towards the end of last year, and generated about $52 million. Valar Ventures, supported by Peter Thiel, the co-founder of the international payment platform, PayPal, led both fund raising events. They were joined, however, in the Series B by DST Global, an investment firm.
Bitpanda: no longer just a crypto broker
CEO of Bitpanda has made known to the press that the organisation will not only be focused on facilitating crypto trade. He has said that the firm will seek to expand its axis of reach by becoming a pan investment platform. They have also touted the introduction of new products and services into its platform.
Recall that, sometime last year, the organization launched its payment platform, Bitpanda Pay, a service which can be used to transfer funds from its account to any bank account in Europe and vice versa. This service also makes it possible for users to pay bills directly from the Bitpanda account.
Eyeing international expansion
While the firm currently have offices outside its Austrian headquarters in France, Poland, Turkey, Italy and Spain, the company is seeking to expand its reach in London, Barcelona, Berlin, Madrid and Paris. The recent funding provides an opportunity to make these expansions.
While the company continues to finalize preparations over their extended outreach program, it is worthy to note that this quest was boosted by the award of the PSD2 license from the Austrian Financial Market Authority (FMC) in April, 2019. The license allows the company to operate within the European Union and the EEA, and it is the first organization to have received this license.
