London-based investment startup Shares, which combines stock market investment with social media, has raised $40m (£30m) in a Series A funding round led by previous investors Valar Ventures.
Other Series A investment participants include Singular, Global Founders Capital and Red Sea Ventures.
The new funding comes as Shares unveils its new app, which allows collaborative investments for small and larger communities.
Shares’ platform aims to give investors a single space to discuss, advise and invest. Members are able to keep track of colleagues’ and friends’ investments and will be able to access and share market data.
Shares claims the barrier to entry in the stock market is too high and so the app requires no minimum, no-fee access to stocks and fractional stocks.
Benjamin Chemla, co-founder and CEO of Shares said: “The app is inspired by our own experiences as retail investors, and we wanted to improve people’s journey by combining trading with a community element that would radically transform the way people approach finance.”
Harjas Singh, co-founder and chief product officer, Shares said: “Catered to resonate with the next generation of investors, the social element is integral to the experience, not an afterthought.
“In less than nine months, we’ve built an investing product with an incredible back-office capability with sophisticated AML [anti-money laundering] and fin-crime detection systems.”
The service is currently only available to those based in the UK. However, the company expects to expand further into Europe in the near future.
Shares previously had a seed-level funding round in 2021 months after being founded, raising $10m (£7.5m), a notably high-level investment for such an early-stage European startup.
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