Bitpanda, a cryptocurrency exchange backed by Peter Thiel's venture capital firm, has raised an additional $170 million in a Series B fundraising round, which brings the company’s valuation to $1.2 billion, TechCrunch has learned. The Vienna-based cryptocurrency exchange attracted investments from Thiel's Valar Ventures firm and unnamed partners from DST Global.
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The valuation makes Bitpanda the first "unicorn" startup in Austria. Bitpanda CEO, Eric Demuth, says the exchange is about to become a "pan-investment platform, not just a crypto broker."
"In the EU, we probably have less than 10% of the population owning stocks. Our growth goes hand in hand with that," Demuth added.
With the last investments, the Vienna-based cryptocurrency exchange plans to expand its services globally with new hubs in Madrid, Barcelona, London, Paris and Berlin. Earlier, iHodl reported that Bitpanda was planning to put up to €10 million in a tech hub in Kraków, Poland. For the new hub, Bitpanda wants to hire 300 IT engineers and programmers by the end of the year.
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