Nextmarkets, a Germany-headquartered stock trading platform developer backed by media group Axel Springer, raised $30m in a series B round yesterday.
Individual investors Alan Howard and Christian Angermayer co-led the round with Angermayer’s blockchain technology-focused holding company, Cryptology Asset Group, while private equity firm DEWB and undisclosed Germany-based investors also took part.
Founded in 2014, Nextmarkets operates an online brokerage platform for the trading of shares and exchange-traded funds that does not charge commission fees to users. It also offers free investment advice and coaching from professional investors.
The company will use the funding mainly for the development of its platform and for customer acquisition activities.
Nextmarkets closed its $11m series A round in 2018, adding $7m from Axel Springer’s Media for Equity subsidiary, FinLab, Cryptology Asset Group, Peter Thiel, Alan Howard and Falk Strascheg to a first tranche provided by FinLab, Thiel and Extorel two years earlier.
FinLab had paid about $2.8m for a majority stake in the company in 2015. Its existing backers include VC firm Founders Fund.