Israel social trading and multi asset brokerage company eToro has raised $100 million in its eight financing round led by China Minsheng Financial and with the participation of Korea Investment Partners, SBI Group and World Wide Invest. A source close to the deal said that the money was raised at a company valuation of $800 million. The proceeds will be used to expand to new markets, and R&D in blockchain and the digitalization of assets.
The company has raised $162 million to date and previous investors include BRM Capital, Spark Capital, CommerzVentures GmbH, Social Leverage and Cubit Investments.
eToro Group Ltd., which was selected in 2013 by "Globes" as one of Israel's most promising start-ups, was founded in 2007 by brothers Yoni and Ronen Assia and David Ring with the vision of developing a platform that would open the financial markets to everyone by simplifying the user’s experience. eToro then developed a contracts for difference (CFD) trading platform and following the rise of popular social networks, the company decided to launch its own social investing platform called “OpenBook” in 2010. The company's platform allpows trading in all assets including securities, foreign currencies and cryptocurrencies like bitcoin.
To date, eToro has over 9 million registered users and offers hundreds of CFDs on currencies, stocks, indices, and commodities. The company has over 200 employees.
eToro CEO Yoni Assia said, "This financing round will be critical for us and will help us to continue to develop our technologies and support the rapid growth that we have been experiencing recently. It will also help us continue our work in blockchain research."
In the financing round eToro was represented by the Meitar Liquornik Geva Leshem Tal law firm and China Minsheng Financial was represented by Yigal Arnon & Co.
Yoni Assia told "Globes," "We have always seen the investment market as very localized and not advanced. Ultimately, everybody wants to make profits in the market. Our customers, unlike institutional investors, do not object to sharing their investments. Users can therefore benefit from "the wisdom of the crowd" and learn what other investors are doing."
Published by Globes [online], Israel business news - www.globes-online.com - on March 21, 2018
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