Bitpanda, a digital investment platform, has closed a Series B funding round for $170 million, pushing the company’s valuation to $1.2 billion.
- In an announcement provided to CoinDesk on Tuesday, the Vienna-based firm said the Series B funding round is one of Europe’s largest-ever capital raises at the Series B stage and marks Bitpanda out as the country’s first "unicorn" – a firm worth over $1 billion.
- The round was led by Valar Ventures, a VC fund founded by Andrew McCormack, James Fitzgerald, and Peter Thiel, with participation from partners of DST Global.
- Completed last week, the raise is now going through the required Austrian Financial Market Authority approval process.
- “Retail investors will soon be able to access an even larger range of digital assets, and we already have plans in place to bring our offer to several new markets,” said Bitpanda CEO Eric Demuth.
- In September, Bitpanda closed its $52 million Series A, also led by Valar.
- The firm launched a Visa debit card in January, which allows customers to switch among multiple assets such as cryptocurrencies, fiat currencies and precious metals to fund payments.