beincrypto.com
European-housed cryptocurrency broker, Bitpanda, has announced a Series-B extension to generate institutional offerings.
The fintech giant raised another €10 million as an extension of its funding round. The goal is to bring forth new ideas to strengthen its institutional offerings in Europe.
The offerings are expected to range from referral solutions up to custom-build comprehensive technology integrations.
Each service will be designed to integrate into applications in order to give users the ability to invest in all assets. Be it fintech, multi-bank, online platforms, Robo-advisors, or traditional banks.
Crypto investments gaining popularity
The announcement comes at a time where institutional demand for cryptocurrencies continues to grow. This is a result of the rise in capital inflow and growing demand for investment products. In the first quarter of 2021, the market saw more than $4.5 billion of such institutional inflow. A growth of 15.38% when compared to the $3.9 billion in inflow seen in the first quarter of 2020.
In the announcement, CEO of Bitpanda Eric Demuth was quoted as saying:
“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.”
This Seris-B extension also brings Jump Capital and Wintermute to Bitpanda. Jump is one of the world’s leading proprietary trading firms. Wintermute provides bespoke liquidity across multiple asset classes to counterparties.
Speaking on behalf of Jump Capital, General Partner Saurabh Shama said the company was “Very excited to partner with the Bitpanda team in their journey to build the leading pan-investment platform in Europe”.
Wintermute joins the team as a global algorithmic market maker in digital assets. In their own words, they “create liquid and efficient markets” that live on crypto exchanges and trading platforms globally.
Bitpanda hits unicorn status
The news comes after a $170 million series-B round in March that was spearheaded by DST Global and Valar Ventures. The funding raised the total company valuation to $1.2 billion and unicorn status.
Bitpanda is based in Austria, but they have expanded recently to France, Italy, Poland, Turkey, and Spain, with plans to grow even further. The next hubs to be created will be in London and Berlin. New investment services to support ETFs and “fractional” trading were recently also being introduced.