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Competition in the European crypto market is set to intensify as the Austrian-based digital investment platform Bitpanda reported that it has secured a $52 million investment to support its expansion on the old continent.
The company said it closed “Europe’s largest Series A financing round for 2020” by securing the investment in a round led by Valar Ventures, a New York-based venture capital firm co-founded by PayPal co-founder Peter Thiel.
“Our goal is to become the leading investment and trading platform in Europe, not only for people who are already familiar with trading, but for everyone else. This funding will help us achieve this goal and, most importantly, continue to recruit some of the best talent in the world to our team,” said Eric Demuth, co-founder and CEO of Bitpanda, in a press release.
“There has been a lot of interest in the area of personal investment in recent years, a trend that has accelerated as we spend more time at home due to the pandemic,” added Andrew McCormack, founding partner of Valar Ventures, who will also join Bitpanda’s board of directors.
Bitpanda, founded in 2014, said it had already expanded to France, Spain and Turkey in 2020 and will enter other unspecified European markets this year and next. The company aims to increase its workforce from the current 230 people to 300 by the end of the year.
The platform, which focuses on digital assets and precious metals trading, says it has more than 1.3 million users who have access to 44 investment assets. The company also said it had launched payment and savings platforms this year and would use the new funds to introduce “more innovative ways to trade and invest.
The company also operates Bitpanda Pro, a crypto exchange for professionals and institutions. At the time of writing, trading volume on this 24-hour platform exceeds $2 million. Bitpanda offers its users the Bitpanda Ecosystem Token (BEST) which doubled in value around March 2020 to reach about $0.08.