BUX raises $80 million, names new CEO
Amsterdam based BUX, one of the fastest growing neo-brokers in Europe, has announced that it has raised $80 million from both new and existing investors, backing its mission to become the leading neo-broker in Europe.
The funding round was led by Prosus Ventures and Tencent, with participation from additional new investors ABN Amro Ventures, Citius, Optiver, and Endeit Capital. Existing investors HV Capital and Velocity Capital Fintech Ventures also participated in the round. Royal Park Partners acted as exclusive financial advisor to BUX and its shareholders throughout the transaction.
App focused BUX, which bills itself as Europe’s fastest-growing neo-broker, said that it recently welcomed its 500,000th customer. The company said it will use this new investment as additional impetus to expand its commission-free investment app BUX Zero.
In parallel with the funding round, BUX said that founder and CEO Nick Bortot will hand over the helm of the company to its current COO Yorick Naeff. Nick Bortot will remain involved with BUX as a member of the non-executive board.
Yorick Naeff, BUX’s new CEO said:
“Younger generations in Europe now realise that investing is one of the few viable ways left to create a stable financial future. With this new funding round, BUX will continue to spearhead innovation by implementing advanced features to further shape the future of how Europeans invest. We are extremely grateful to have top tier investors like Prosus Ventures and Tencent onboard to support us in our mission.”
Sandeep Bakshi, Head of Europe Investments for Prosus Ventures added:
“Traditional financial market investing comes with a lot of friction and we firmly believe in the democratization of access to financial services for the next generation of investors. The existing solutions are expensive, complex and not designed for younger generations. BUX has built the next generation of investing services that are low cost, convenient and intuitive for even the newest investor, while covering the full spectrum of investment options, including cryptocurrencies. They have already experienced impressive growth and are the best-positioned neo-broker to scale across Europe and beyond.
Alex Leung, Assistant GM at Tencent, Strategic Development noted:
“We are excited about backing BUX as they are the leading neo-broker in Europe and have been able to build a platform that is sustainable and scalable. BUX is the only neo-broker in Europe that offers zero commission investing without being dependent on kickbacks or payments for order flow. This ensures that its interests are fully aligned with its customers. We will support BUX in its journey of pursuing consistent growth for the years to come.”
In the past three months alone, BUX Zero has more than doubled its assets under management. In addition, the number of active users grew six-fold throughout the year. With interest rates at all-time lows and struggling pension systems, there is a fast-growing appetite to start investing especially amongst the younger generations.
Having successfully launched BUX Zero in Germany, France, Austria and Belgium in the past year, the company said that it will continue its international expansion throughout 2021.
One of the main advantages firms such as BUX have seen is that the US firms which have raised an absolute ton of cash and have grown even larger, such as Robinhood and Public.com, have remained rooted in the US market. Robinhood made a failed attempt last year at expansion in the UK and Europe, but eventually shut down its UK site.