Netherlands-based online trading platform operator Bux secured $80m yesterday in a series C round co-led by internet and gaming group Tencent and Prosus, the internet group formed by e-commerce and media conglomerate Naspers.
The round also featured financial trading firm Optiver and ABN Amro Ventures, the venture capital arm of financial services firm ABN Amro, while Prosus took part through corporate venturing fund Prosus Ventures.
Citius, Endeit Capital, HV Capital and Velocity Capital Fintech Ventures filled out the round, which lifted the company’s overall funding to at least $115m since it was founded in 2014.
Bux operates a mobile trading platform that lets users invest in company shares and exchange-traded funds without commission fees. It also maintains a platform for trading cryptocurrencies and recently secured its 500,000th customer.
The company has announced that founder and CEO Nick Bortot will step down from his role to be replaced by its chief operating officer, Yorick Naeff. Bortot will continue to be involved in the business as a member of its non-executive board.
The series C round follows a $12.5m round in June 2019 co-led by Velocity Capital and HV Capital with debt financing supplied by Kreos Capital. Bux had previously raised $1.6m on crowdfunding platform Seeders in November 2017.
HV Capital (then known as HV Holtzbrinck Ventures) led a $12.5m series C round for the company also designated as a series C earlier that year, participating with Velocity Capital and assorted angel investors. It also led a $6.7m round backed by Orange Growth Capital and Velocity Capital in 2016.
The company had already received $1.9m in a 2015 round led by Initial Capital, with participation from Silicon Valley Bank and 5Square. It came after Orange Growth Capital supplied an undisclosed amount of seed funding the previous year.