BERLIN--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Trade Republic, Europe's leading NeoBroker, today announces a $900M Series C investment led by Sequoia with participation from new investors TCV and Thrive Capital as well as existing investors Accel, Founders Fund, Creandum and Project A. With a valuation of over $5B, Trade Republic is amongst the highest valued private FinTechs in Europe. With this investment, Trade Republic will continue to drive its mission to set up millions of Europeans for wealth creation with secure, easy, and free access to capital markets. This will ultimately open up financial markets for all Europeans to help close the massive pension gap.
"At Trade Republic, we believe everybody should have the right to participate in economic growth. This requires an easy-to-use, accessible and affordable savings platform that is open to everyone," says co-founder Christian Hecker. "Within just 24 months, we have empowered over one million people to put their money to work. For many Germans, French and Austrians, Trade Republic is the home screen app to manage their wealth."
Demographic change, negative interest rates and inflation are among the greatest challenges for Europeans. Compared to other industrial nations, European countries face a huge pension gap. Trade Republic aims to help millions of people across Europe to invest money into capital markets with an easy-to-use and commission-free offering. This removes barriers for many people, who have missed out on participating in economic growth in the past.
"Fifty percent of Trade Republic's customers, over 500k people, have never invested in capital markets before in their life. We empower people to start with wealth creation, who have been neglected by big banks for too long, with high fees and opaque products," adds Thomas Pischke, co-founder. "With over €6B in Assets under Management, we are the core savings account for our customers."
At the heart of Trade Republic's offering is an ETF or fractional stock savings plan, which allows people to invest free of charge on a regular basis. Trade Republic is already Germany's largest provider for these long-term investment strategies. In addition to commission-free investing into equities, Trade Republic also recently added crypto currencies so people can adjust their portfolio to reflect inflation and negative interest rates.
The investment is led by Sequoia, which has backed defining companies such as Apple, Google, Stripe and Klarna. This marks one of Sequoia's largest initial investments ever in Europe. The round is completed by TCV, who has invested into iconic consumer brands like Netflix, Spotify and Peloton until their IPOs and beyond, as well as by Thrive Capital, investors in Nubank and Oscar Health.
"The democratization of financial markets will be one of the most important consumer trends of the next decade," says Doug Leone, partner at Sequoia. "Trade Republic is on the leading edge of this trend and has attracted an untapped generation of European savers who demand increased financial accessibility. We're thrilled to partner with Christian, Thomas, Marco and their team as they deliver a product and experience that customers love."
"We are very excited to partner with Sequoia, TCV and Thrive. The strong continuing interest of leading investors proves Trade Republic's progress in redefining how people can save their money. We will use this funding to create the most innovative investment products for our customers, expand across Europe and attract the best global talent. We expect this to accelerate our growth so we can reach millions of Europeans and ensure that everyone has access to the simplest, most powerful financial services no matter who they are, where they are in their financial lives and how much they earn," adds Christian Hecker.
To change the financial system, Trade Republic has built a bank from scratch since 2015 with an easy-to-use product everybody can afford. With an $900M Series C financing round, Trade Republic closes one of the largest venture investments in financial services in Europe. This supports the fast growth of Trade Republic across continental Europe with innovative, secure and commission-free financial products as well as attracting the best global talent on its mission. The Trade Republic team has quickly grown to over 400 employees.
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ABOUT TRADE REPUBLIC
Trade Republic is on a mission to set millions of Europeans up for wealth creation with secure, easy and free access to capital markets. With over one million customers Trade Republic is already the home screen app for many Europeans to manage their wealth. It offers commission-free investing in equities and crypto as well as free ETF and fractional stock savings plans. Trade Republic is a technology company with a German banking license supervised by Bundesbank and BaFin. As Europe's largest NeoBroker Trade Republic has received investments by Accel, Creandum, Founders Fund, Project A, Sequoia, TCV, and Thrive Capital. The company based in Berlin was founded in 2015 by Christian Hecker, Thomas Pischke, and Marco Cancellieri and employs more than 400 people.