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Upvest, a German startup that provides highly scalable and modular API service to fintechs secures £4.5M

The Application Programming Interface (API) has helped in revolutionising various industries. It has been a key part of software development for decades right now, helping businesses with everyday tasks and accelerates data sharing. 

However, with the rise in API usage, the threat is on the rise too, with no end on the horizon. In this regard, Upvest, a Berlin-based startup is empowering financial institutions of Europe to offer securities to retail investors with a modular, scalable, and accessible API.

Raised £4.5M funding

The German company has recently raised an additional €5M (approx £4.5M) funding led by Earlybird, ensuring the close of the Series A+. This additional funding follows an initial €7M (approx £6.3M) investment from Notion Capital, HV Capital, and Partech.

How will the funding be used?

With this fresh funding, Upvest will incorporate a brokerage bank license (Wertpapierhandelsbank in German) into its offering, allowing an extension of its product into investment brokerage and traditional securities custody.

Simple gateway API

In an attempt to transform the traditional, outdated, and regulatory complex securities infrastructure, the company designed a simple gateway API that is easy to integrate into existing infrastructure. 

Founded in 2017 by CEO Martin Kassing, Upvest provides a highly scalable and modular API service that enables fintechs all over Europe to launch investment products easily. 

This enables fintechs to offer investment products at scale across countries, allowing them to add assets and modules to their offerings.

Aims to provide value for users

According to the company, this increases value for users by providing access to a broad range of investment products (ETFs, equities, and commodities) and assets from both private and public markets. 

Besides commonly traded assets, Upvest helps transform illiquid assets, such as real estate, into liquid assets, while facilitating an 85% reduction in cost over traditional solutions through its proprietary blockchain custody service. 

After a decade of fintech UX innovation, the era of embedded finance and composable backend systems began. By building a scalable and modular Securities API, we will enable fintechs all over Europe to launch investment products easily,” said Martin Kassing, CEO and Founder of Upvest.

Tim Rehder, Partner at Earlybird VC, comments: “An increasing demand from millennials for investment products, combined with negative interest rates, led fintechs of all kinds to prioritize their expansion into an investment platform. Upvest lets them focus on their core business while providing a simple plug-and-play solution for integrating securities into their products. What seems simple is in fact a complex infrastructure, disrupting established national players across Europe. We are particularly excited to support Martin and the team in their journey to create a new European category within B2B security infrastructure.”

Clients and investors

The company serves clients including Bitwala, Exporo, Transferwise, Flatex, Raisin, and Onfido. Upvest plans to expand its team to 40 people by the end of 2020. Notably, Upvest is also supported by powerful fintech angel investors such as Maximilian Tayenthal, founder of N26, Felix Haas founder of IDNow, and Reiner Mauch, founder of Consorsbank.

The post Upvest, a German startup that provides highly scalable and modular API service to fintechs secures £4.5M appeared first on UKTN (UK Tech News).

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