A Danish challenger neobroker, which changed its original name because it “sucked”, has raised $2.6 million in a funding round as it looks to replicate the success of disruptors like Robinhood and Trade Republic.
Pluto.markets, a Y-Combinator-backed brokerage startup founded by a former Goldman Sachs trader, is looking to disrupt the brokerage market in the Nordics and other markets.
Pluto.markets was founded in 2021 by Joakim Bruchmann, a former base metals trader at Goldman Sachs and Oscar Vingtoft, a software engineer.
The challenger has just begun testing its services and has a long way to go to replicate the success of the likes of Robinhood and Trade Republic.
CEO & co-founder Bruchmann jokes to Tech.eu:
“When we founded the company, we were initially called StockTalk which didn’t stick with anyone.
“On one of the first investor-calls we ever did, the angel investor first forgot our name and afterwards told us bluntly that our name sucked, so we decided to change it.”
The funding round was led by Magnetic, the Berlin-based technology investor with funding also coming from the founders of Pleo, Zendesk, Sitecore, Synthesia as well as investment from Y-Combinator, Nordic Makers and angel investors.
In total, the startup has around $1.8 million in funding.
It plans to launch in Denmark as its first market, on July 1 this year and then has ambitious plans to launch in a new market every six months, starting with the Nordics.
Its focus is on the 100 million Europeans living in countries that have there own local currencies, like the Nordics.
The startup, which says it has secured an EU Investment Firm licence with additional capability for the startup to act as a custodian, adds that it has a “lean” setup and has begun testing its app.
Asked if the startup was offering commission-free trading like Robinhood, Bruchmann said:
“We are a neo-broker building a NextGen investment experience to replace the 90’s incumbents who still charge high commissions, have a narrow asset offering and don’t cater to ordinary people without financial backgrounds.”
On its point of difference to Nordic competitors, he said:
“With the regulatory approval and new funding, we can now go head-to-head with the multi $bn Nordic incumbents such as Nordnet, Avanza and Saxo Bank before expanding further.
“We have learned from the mistakes our neo-brokerage peers have made on their journeys and will win the Nordics by giving a superior user-experience with lower fees across investing and saving, a supportive in-app community and by continuously launching new and relevant investment products to our users.”
Would you like to write the first comment?
Login to post comments