Upvest raises $42 million in Bessemer-led round, lays the groundwork for international expansion

Berlin-based Upvest is back at it, this time with a $42 million Series B funding round led by Bessemer Venture Partners; the same firm that’s seen 135 portfolio company IPOs and backed the likes of Pinterest, Shopify, and LinkedIn, to name a few.

The new funds will be used to further develop and optimise the company’s API and lay the groundwork for internationalisation goals, all as it seeks to augment the team size.

Designed as a simple gateway API that’s easy to integrate into existing infrastructure, Upvest’s technology allows fintechs to offer their end customers capital market investment products including everything from ETFs and stocks to crypto assets. Editors Note: crypto assets might not be the biggest draw right now, but Upvest has left no stone unturned.

As one of the few financial institutions in Europe owning all BaFin licenses for securities and crypto brokerage, and custody, Upvest is in a unique position, offering both neo and traditional banking industry players tremendous savings, both in terms of time and money, as there’s no need to develop their own brokerage and custody infrastructure from scratch.

But don’t simply take my word for it as the proof is in the pudding. Just a few weeks prior, Upvest announced the signing of a deal with Netherlands-based ABN AMRO, providing payment rails and transaction banking services, and for safekeeping the assets of the company’s B2B clients, Upvest could win BNP Securities Services as Europe’s largest custodian.

"We appreciate our investors' commitment, particularly in light of the current market environment. We see this together with the demand of leading international fintechs for our solution as a confirmation of our unique positioning and market offering," commented Upvest CEO and founder Martin Kassing. "Together with our investors who bring strength to the table in terms of industry expertise as well as internationalisation strategies, we are now ready to open up a new chapter for our company.”

Bessemer Venture Partners led the $42 million Series B round with Earlybird, ABN AMRO Ventures, Notion Capital, Partech, 10x Group, Speedinvest, and Maximilian Tayenthal (N26) all participating.

"Upvest is ideally positioned with a market-leading product in one of the most exciting and underserved areas of fintech infrastructure. Just one of Upvest’s USPs: the Investment-API can be easily connected to existing backends and can be immediately deployed, enabling businesses to build great investment experiences for their end-users – seamless, secure, and across international borders," concluded Bessemer’s Charles Birnbaum.