BERLIN (Reuters) -Trade Republic, one of a crop of European online brokerages that have drawn comparisons with Robinhood, said on Thursday it had raised $900 million from investors at a valuation of more than $5 billion.
Trade Republic, which was founded six years ago in Berlin and counts over a million customers in Germany, France and Austria, said the Series C round was led by Sequoia, the Silicon Valley investor that recently opened an office in London.
Like Robinhood, which has spawned a new class of U.S. retail investor that has powered the latest bull market in stocks, Trade Republic offers commission-free investment via an easy-to-use smartphone app.
Trade Republic offers free exchange-traded fund savings plans and commission-free investing in shares and cryptocurrencies. It now has assets under management of 6 billion euros ($7.3 billion).
“Fifty percent of Trade Republic’s customers, over 500,000 people, have never invested in capital markets before in their life,” said co-founder Thomas Pischke.
Joining the investment round were TCV and Thrive Capital, as well as existing investors Accel, Founders Fund, Creandum and Project A.
($1 = 0.8209 euros)
(Reporting by Douglas Busvine, editing by Thomas Escritt, Kirsti Knolle)
