Vienna-based cryptocurrency broker Bitpanda has closed its third major private financing round led past Peter Thiel's Valar Ventures.

Raising $263 million and drawing in new investments from British billionaire hedge fund director Alan Howard and REDO Ventures, the company is now valued at $4.1 billion. That'south iii times its last valuation of $1.two billion for its $170-million raise in March of this twelvemonth.

Bitpanda has now raised close to $500 million through various private financing rounds, counting three-time backer Valar Ventures alongside echo investors that include LeadBlock Partners and Spring Capital. Since 2022, the company's offerings have centered on cryptocurrency and precious metals brokerage. The platform is currently trialing a stock trading service that would exist live 24/vii.

In an interview with CNBC, Bitpanda co-founder and co-CEO Eric Demuth said that the stock offering would likely be ready by the end of this year. Having cemented its popularity amidst crypto users, the new service would bring the platform onto the same terrain as highly successful stock trading apps such equally Robinhood, whose profile — as well as trading volumes and, arguably, notoriety — shot upwards during the GameStop saga earlier this year.

One distinguishing feature of Bitpanda is its profitability. Demuth has said the company has been assisting for the past five years and, while not disclosing its verbal annual revenues to reporters, is ostensibly on track to increment them sevenfold in 2022. With over three 1000000 users at present, still significantly lower than rivals Robinhood and Revolut, that sets it apart from both. The latter'southward initial public offering (IPO) filing revealed a $ane.iv-billion quarterly loss early this year, and Revolut lost over $230 million in 2022 — up 57% from 2022.

In its March 2022 heighten, Bitpanda had sealed investment from Robinhood-backer DST Global, which has not, at the time of writing, been publicly confirmed as a participant in this latest circular.

Related: Crypto-friendly app Robinhood loses eight% in public Nasdaq debut

Bitpanda operates solely in Europe, with plans to aggrandize to new markets such equally France, Spain, Italian republic and Portugal using the new funding. The company does not take imminent plans to go public, merely Demuth has spoken positively of Wise's recent direct list on the London Stock Substitution, which followed a listing method first used by Spotify on the New York Stock Exchange in 2022. He has ruled out an IPO via a merger with a special purpose acquisition company — the route used by stablecoin issuer Circle for its NYSE public listing after this yr.