Shares, which claims to be Europe’s first social and community-based investing app, has closed its Series B on $40m, just months after its UK launch.
Valar Ventures served as the lead investor.
This investment will help Shares continue its expansion across Europe and launch a crypto-asset proposition, among other new features. Its crypto feature will help users transact in the digital assets space.
The company expects to be live in the rest of Europe by the end of the year and has hired regional general managers and teams in Barcelona, Berlin, Stockholm, Krakow and Amsterdam.
With the close of the round, the company has raised a total of $90m in equity. It previously raised $40m for its Series A in March 2022.
Since its launch in the UK in May 2022, Shares has attracted over 150,000 users and became the second most downloaded app in the finance category on the App Store and the sixth most downloaded app in the UK.
Shares aims to combine the simplicity of an investing platform with the features people would expect from a social media app. It claims to be creating the new category of “social trading.”
Through the app, users can learn and chat about investing with their friends, family and like-minded communities while getting access to hundreds of US stocks. Its app currently offers social trading, activity feeds and push notifications, group watchlists and activity signals, chats and social push notifications, analyst ratings, price alerts and more.
The company aims to be making investing more accessible to everyone. Of its customers, 65% are Gen Z and 26% are millennials.
Shares founder and CEO Benjamin Chemla said, “It’s fantastic to see the unwavering confidence our investors have not only in Shares as a platform, but in the team behind it as we go from strength to strength.
“As part of our mission to democratise the financial world, we remain committed to being innovative, agile and prepared to provide a first-class experience for our customers of today and tomorrow. This latest investment from Valar Ventures will only serve to reinforce our growing momentum, supporting the next stage of our expansion into Europe that in turn will act as a springboard into international audiences.”
Another company looking to combine social media and investing is Zeed. The company, which recently raised £205,000, has built a TikTok-inspired investing app. Zeed’s mobile app, which will launch later this month, will enable users to watch educational video content on investment trends and general financial knowledge.
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