Australian neobroker Stake raises AUD $40M for expansion
Australian online brokerage startup Stake, which has set itself up as a Robinhood-like democratizer of global markets, has announced that it has raised an additional AUD $40 million (USD $31 million) to help the company expand operations globally.
The round was led by New York based tech investor Tiger Global, with participation from partners of Internet tech investor DST Global.
Over the past year Stake, which operates the site hellostake.com, claims to have grown its customer base more than six times over, and has begun expanding beyond its home market of Australia, where the company set the goal of making it easier and more cost efficient for locals to trade non-Australian equities. The company launched in neighboring New Zealand in April 2020, followed by initial steps in the UK and Brazil.
Globally, Stake says it now has more than 330,000 customers, with about 10% of those in New Zealand.
Matt Leibowitz, Founder and CEO of Stake said:
“We’re really excited to get to this point, but this is just the start. We set out to change the game for retail investors, and were self-funded for the first four years of our journey. We’ve proven the model and now have the chance to expand our product and bring our zero-brokerage service to more retail investors.”
Stake was founded in 2016 by CEO Matt Leibowitz and COO Dan Silver. The Australia company Stakeshop Pty Ltd is formally an authorised representative of ASIC-licensed Sanlam Private Wealth Pty Ltd. The group also set up UK subsidiary Hellostake Limited, which is regulated by the UK Financial Conduct Authority (FCA). The company has plans to expand beyond Australia into the UK and Europe.
Stake added the following message on social media:
Today we announced a AU$40m capital raise to continue the growth of Stake. We’re so thankful to the Stake team and our incredible customer community who have backed us – you are the reason Stake is where it is. We’re so excited for the next part of the journey. This is just the beginning.