On Thursday, Berlin-based Upvest, an investment infrastructure provider, announced that it has secured €100M in a Series C funding round led by Hedosophia and joined by Sapphire Ventures.
The round also saw continued participation from existing investors, including Bessemer Venture Partners, BlackRock, Earlybird, HV Capital, Motive Ventures, and Notion Capital.
The German company will use the funds to double its 170-strong team, enhance its product offering, strengthen its presence in the UK, and deepen its partnerships with financial institutions.
Martin Kassing, CEO and co-founder of Upvest, says, “We couldn’t be more excited about the additional capital that will fuel our mission to make investing as easy as spending money. With the capital, we will conquer new markets, build exciting new products faster, and serve prime fintechs and financial institutions alike. We will continue establishing a new standard of investment infrastructure that delights clients and provides them with a strategic advantage by running on the Upvest platform.”
The announcement comes over a year after raising €30M in a funding round.
Upvest: Simplifying investment process for investors
Founded in 2017 by Martin Kassing, Upvest, which is regulated by the German supervision authority is a fintech company to simplifies the investment process for customers.
It offers an Investment API to help financial institutions provide investment products such as stocks and Exchange-Traded Funds (ETFs) in nominal, portfolio, and fractional forms.
Upvest claims to offer a low-friction infrastructure for new investment propositions. Its API-based system enables real, physical fractional investing in assets like ETFs, stocks, and mutual funds, reducing entry barriers to as little as €1.
Upvest’s API technology benefits both established banks and brokers as well as emerging fintech players such as neo brokers and neo banks.
In 2024, the fintech company has processed over 20 million orders on behalf of its clients. The company’s clients include Revolut, Raisin, N26, and bunq.
In recent months, this cadence has increased to over 1 million trades per week, claims the company.
This year, the company’s revenues grew 25 per cent per month on average.
In 2024, Upvest became authorised and regulated by the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA), enabling UK-based fintechs, banks, and wealth managers to launch or migrate their investment offerings using the Investment API.
Upvest helps clients grow in Europe and the UK with one API.
In the future, it will add new products, like local pension wrappers (ISA/SIPP, PEA), regional investment options, and tax services.
The investors
London-based Hedosophia is a global investment firm supporting category-defining technology companies, with offices in London, Paris, Los Angeles, and Guernsey.
Sapphire is a global software venture capital firm with more than $10B in AUM and team members across Austin, London, Menlo Park, and San Francisco.
Since its founding, the company has invested in more than 170 companies globally resulting in more than 30 Public Listings and 45 acquisitions.
The firm’s investment strategies — Sapphire Ventures, Sapphire Partners, and Sapphire Sport — are focused on scaling companies and venture funds, elevating them to become category leaders.
Andreas Weiskam, Partner at Sapphire Ventures, adds, “Sapphire Ventures is thrilled to partner with Martin and the entire Upvest team as they redefine what’s possible for European investment infrastructure. We believe their full-stack system addresses the unique challenges of enterprise banks, fintechs, and D2C platforms with exceptional usability, innovation, and resilience. Perhaps most impressive is the team behind the technology – a leadership group with decades of wealthtech experience who embody the innovation and passion needed to drive change in a long-underserved space.”
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