Germany-based investment advisory platform Nextmarkets has raised €6m from investors including media group Axel Springer’s Media for Equity unit to close its series A round at €9.5m ($11m).
FinLab, Cryptology Asset Group and private investors Peter Thiel, Alan Howard and Falk Strascheg provided the capital that made up the second tranche. FinLab, Thiel and family office Extorel made the initial series A investment in July 2016.
Nextmarkets has built an online platform that provides coaching and advice from investment experts. The company was founded in 2014, and FinLab paid approximately $2.8m for a majority stake the following year.
The latest funding came after the company was granted a banking license from Maltese regulators, allowing it to offer financial accounts and the capacity to make trades in stock and cryptocurrency exchanges.
Manuel Heyden, Nextmarkets’ founder and CEO, said: “With obtaining the banking license and going live we have taken a major milestone in our success story. From now on we will focus on dynamic growth in Europe and soon globally with our highly scalable, transactional business model.”