Peter Thiel-backed crypto exchange startup Bitpanda raises $263M in funding, tripling its valuation in five months to $4.1 billion

As you may recall, we featured Bitpanda back in March after the European cryptocurrency trading platform raised a $170 million Series B round to drive expansion and transform Europe’s financial industry. The round, which was led by Peter Thiel’s Valar Venture, pushed the company’s valuation to $1.2 billion, making Bitpanda a member of the highly coveted unicorn club.

Fast forward five months later, Bitpanda announced it has raised $263 million in a fresh round of funding tripling its valuation to $4.1 billion. The round was led by Valar Ventures, the venture capital firm co-founded by U.S. tech billionaire Peter Thiel. British billionaire investor Alan Howard, REDO Ventures, LeadBlock Partners, and Jump Capital also invested.

The story of BitPanda is one of the most fascinating stories in fintech startups. In 2013, three Austrian digital currency enthusiasts had problems with buying Bitcoins within the European Union. With all the government regulations surrounding buying and selling Bitcoin at the time, it was difficult to find an EU-compliant cryptocurrency marketplace. So instead of complaining about the problem, they decided to solve it. Their solution to this problem led to BitPanda, Europe’s leading digital currency platform.

BitPanda is a great example of how a gap in the market could be solved when an entrepreneurial mindset is mixed with talent and eagerness to understand not just a niche market, but the legislation as well.

Bitpanda was later founded in 2014 by Eric Demuth, Paul Klanschek, and Christian Trummer. The startup has since grown into Europe’s leading trading platform for Bitcoin, Ethereum, IOTA, and more with over 900.000 users and more than than 160 team members.

Commenting on the funding, Eric Demuth, CEO of Bitpanda, said he’s “very skeptical” about the number of fintech firms raising money at lofty valuations out of “hype” and a “fear of missing out.”