
Initial Capital in $1.9m round for BUX
Early-stage-focused VC Initial Capital has led a $1.9m funding round for London- and Amsterdam-headquartered stock trading app BUX.
Initial Capital, which invested alongside VCs Velocity Capital and 5Square, is a firm with offices both in London and Silicon Valley specialised in seed and early-stage investments in predominantly software companies.
The VC, which recently backed London-based Hutch Games, Barcelona-based Winko Games and Stockholm-based Resolution Games, targets the gaming industry as one of its core investment areas. According to the firm, the focus explains its support to the current round for BUX, which aims to make brokerage more accessible via a recreational approach.
The fresh funds come as BUX looks to expand from its current presence in the UK and the Netherlands – where it claims to have secured 200,000 users – onto additional European markets.
The funding round is the company's second since being created in 2013; in January 2014, it was first backed by VC Orange Growth Capital and its founding team.
The investment in the London-based fintech scene is the second to be reported by unquote" in the space of a week. The segment was recently home to a joint venture between Synova Capital and US-based firm FiveW in support of Merit, a banking-related software developer.
Company
Founded in 2013, BUX develops an app offering customers a first-time stock trading experience. The users begin by familiarising themselves with the process via a virtual currency and then may move on to real money trading. With headquarters in both London and Amsterdam, the company operates additional offices in Berlin.
People
Initial Capital founding partner Shukri Shammas led the deal on behalf of the firm. Nick Bortot founded BUX and is the company's CEO.
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