Here’s the pitch deck fintech Upvest used to raise $14.5 million backed by UiPath investor Earlybird


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  • German fintech startup Upvest has raised fresh funding to close a €12 million ($14.5 million) Series A.
  • The company, which provides APIs for securities, has brought in funding from Berlin-based fund Earlybird.
  • “We’re operating in a rapidly growing market due to a combination of factors,” Martin Kassing, Upvest founder and CEO, told Business Insider in an interview. “Negative interest rates are making people to look to cash-generating assets, we’re seeing a generation of millennials that want to invest, and with coronavirus, fintechs are looking to find more lifetime value from customers.”
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Berlin-based fintech startup Upvest has closed a $14.5 million round of funding following a top-up investment from German fund Earlybird.

Upvest, founded in 2017, provides a scalable API for other fintech startups to offer pan-European securities.

The company’s API runs on what it describes as proprietary blockchain infrastructure and gives plug-and-play capabilities to startups looking to offer traditional and alternative assets to users. 

“We’re operating in a rapidly growing market due to a combination of factors,” Martin Kassing, Upvest’s founder and CEO, told Business Insider. “Negative interest rates are making people to look to cash-generating assets, we’re seeing a generation of millennials that want to invest, and with coronavirus, fintechs are looking to find more lifetime value from customers.”

The startup had been in contact with Earlybird for a number of years prior to the investment round but conversations became serious after Kassing did a live pitch on stage at a conference in Paris at the start of the year. Coronavirus played a part in Upvest choosing to take additional capital with Kassing citing “uncertainty” around Covid-19 and future runway as key reasons for fundraising. 

The fintech will use the funding to expand across countries. Upvest has grown its digital asset business, particularly alternative assets, in recent years and will spend 2021 developing the infrastructure for more traditional securities, such as ETFs. 

Upvest’s investment also comes from Notion Capital, HV Holtzbrinck Ventures and fintech angel investors including Maximilian Tayenthal, founder of N26. 

Check out the company’s (redacted) pitch deck below: 

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