Upvest, a Berlin-based FinTech firm, has aligned with BlackRock to render investing more accessible to millions of Europeans.
The company recently closed a €30m funding round in 2023, which saw participation from BlackRock alongside existing investors like Bessemer Venture Partners, HV Capital, Earlybird, Notion Capital, ABN Amro Ventures, and 10x Capital.
Upvest champions the sphere of accessible investing by leveraging its API-based investment infrastructure to facilitate tangible, physical fractional investing across various financial instruments, including ETFs, stocks, and mutual funds. The firm’s strategic moves have significantly lowered entry barriers, enabling investments starting from as little as €1 in any asset class.
With the new funds, Upvest intends to provide a robust investment infrastructure to companies, thereby facilitating smooth and cost-effective investment experiences. While the precise allocation strategy of the fresh capital was not detailed, it can be inferred that the funds will be channelled towards further enhancing Upvest’s technological capabilities and possibly expanding its geographical footprint.
The partnership between Upvest and BlackRock has been forged to combine BlackRock’s extensive asset management expertise, particularly in ETFs, with Upvest’s streamlined investment API. This alliance aims to empower wealth managers, banks, and other FinTechs to develop modern investment experiences, substantially reducing the development time from years to mere months.
Head of iShares EMEA Digital Wealth business at BlackRock, Timo Toenges, expressed, “Millions of Europeans are embracing investing for the first time to build a better financial future for themselves. BlackRock’s partnership with Upvest will drive innovation in how Europeans access markets and make it cheaper and simpler to start investing. Across Europe ETFs are at the core of these new propositions and often the default choice for investors, as a transparent, low cost and easily understood starting point for a new generation of investors.”
In addition, Upvest co-founder and CEO Martin Kassing shared, “One of the world’s leading providers of investments meets leading European investment infrastructure. We are incredibly proud of this partnership as a way to increase investment adoption for millions of people. With only a fraction of the European population investing in stocks and ETFs, we feel the urge to provide a better investment infrastructure to companies facilitating easy and affordable investment experiences. Together with BlackRock’s investment expertise, we can now serve any financial institution to upgrade their investment offering.”
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