eToro shares change hands at $2.5 billion valuation
Welcome to the world of Retail FX unicorns.
Israeli business news website Calcalist is reporting that Retail FX and CFDs broker eToro has seen its valuation soar in the secondary private share market, as an unnamed US institutional investor acquired a $50 million block of eToro shares from a selling shareholder at a company valuation of about $2.5 billion.
eToro already had attained near-unicorn status, with its latest funding round in early 2018 which saw China Minsheng Financial lead a $100 million round at an $800 million valuation. This of course means that investors in that round have seen their investment value triple in under less than three years.
Over the years, eToro has raised about $162 million in outside capital with other investors including China’s Ping An, Russia’s Sberbank, CommerzVentures, and Spark Capital. According to Calcalist eToro is already in the planning stages for another funding round.
eToro has utilized social media better than any other Retail FX broker in the sector. It has grown its “community” to more than 10 million users, and focuses its efforts on social trading and interactions between members of the eToro community. The company has also become very aggressive of late in the sports sponsorships arena, backing a number of leading European soccer clubs.
eToro was founded and is still run by CEO Yoni Assia, and his brother Ronen who recently co-launched fintech VC fund Team8 Fintech.
December 8, 2020 @ 4:50 pm
Not such crazy valuation IG is worth $4 bln and Id bet that etoro already makes more money than IG