Crypto trading platform Bitpanda has raised $52 million in a Series A funding round led by Peter Thiel’s Valar Ventures.

The money will be used to drive expansion and position the Vienna-based company as a leader in transforming Europe’s financial industry. The platform currently has more than 1.3 million users trading digital assets and precious metals.

Through its desktop site and mobile apps, users have access to 44 investment assets. So far this year, the company has launched payments and savings platforms and will use the new funding to build more innovative ways of trading and investing.

The company, which expanded to France, Spain and Turkey this year, is also planning to enter additional European markets this year and next.

To support continued growth, the recruitment of 70 new team members is underway, increasing Bitpanda’s team to 300 employees by the end of 2020 and continuing to scale thereafter.

As part of the investment, Valar Ventures founding partner Andrew McCormack will join Bitpanda’s board. He joined PayPal in its early years and supported Peter Thiel during its IPO and eventual sale to eBay in 2002.

Valar has overseen investments in multiple European FinTechs turned unicorns, such as Transferwise and N26.

McCormack said: “Interest in investing has grown massively over the past few years and, with people spending more time at home as a result of the pandemic, this has only accelerated.

"We believe Bitpanda is perfectly positioned to take advantage of the opportunity by scaling across Europe and continuing to attract loyal users, which the team has already proven they can do profitably.”

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