Imagine you are interested in getting into the stock market. You’re probably still young and you have no idea where to start. Because of your lack of experience, you hesitate to put in money which you could use for more sensible purchases. Most people will subsequently back off from investing in the stock market. This is where the next generation trading app BUX comes into play. BUX is an international community-based trading app on a mission to enable anyone to explore the world of financial markets. And today, the Dutch company announces that it has raised €10.6M in Series C funding.
Reinventing trading experience
BUX was founded in 2014 and has already expanded to eight different countries in Europe. Originating from Amsterdam, its community already consists of 1.2 million users as of now. It is the company’s aim to take down the barriers to the financial markets, subsequently reinventing the trading experience. To achieve this goal, BUX focuses on helping new generations of investors to discover the world of financial markets.
Discover financial markets
Nick Bortot, CEO, and founder of BUX, stated the following: “Since the crisis rocked the world in 2008, the public, and particularly the millennial generation, have become more aware and interested in the direct consequences the financial world can have. Inseparable from politics and the world economy, the financial markets are the most influential instruments in the world, which makes exploring them extremely compelling. At BUX, we want to give everyone the opportunity to go out and discover that for themselves.”
Learning in a risk-free environment
Therefore, 80% of the so-called “BUXsters” have had little to no experience with stock trading before joining the app. This is the company’s target audience. But how does BUX work exactly? To make the dive into the world of stock trading for more comfortable, these novice investors will start trading with fake money. This way, they will be able to learn the ropes of stock trading in a risk-free environment that mirrors the real deal. Only when the users are truly comfortable with the tools provided and the dynamics of the markets, they will move on to investing with real money. BUX is also trying to create a true community, as it encourages users to communicate with each other through group forums. To encourage knowledge sharing even more, the company lets users follow semi-professional channels. The overall result is a new generation of responsible and educated investors.
Further expanding the product
BUX will use the funds primarily to expand their product, offering a full suite of different apps by 2020. These will range from short-term trading to long-term investing. The current product is focused on short-term trading. Contrary to this initial app, BUX intends to launch a mid to long-term investing app over the next year, as well as a cryptocurrency-app. The latter is based on the substantial user interest in such an app.
Investors
This latest funding round was led by Germany’s HV Holtzbrinck Ventures, one of the most successful European venture capital firms. Previously, the firm had invested €6.1M into the company in 2016. Velocity Ventures also supported this round, along with some very influential angel investors. These include Arthur Kosten, former Booking.com CMO, and Thierry Schaap, co-founder of online brokerage firm BinckBank. BUX has also started its crowdfunding campaign on Seedrs, giving their users the fitting opportunity to own shares of the company. Dutch startup VanMoof has also recently closed a funding round and followed up with a crowdfunding campaign. It seems to become a trend to be on the lookout for.