Bux secures funding from Prosus and Tencent to expand in Europe

Bux, Europe’s fastest-growing neo-broker, has secured an $80 million (R5.9 billion) investment after a funding round led by Prosus Ventures and Tencent. Photo: File

Bux, Europe’s fastest-growing neo-broker, has secured an $80 million (R5.9 billion) investment after a funding round led by Prosus Ventures and Tencent. Photo: File

Published Apr 23, 2021

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CAPE TOWN - BUX, Europe’s fastest-growing neo-broker, has secured an $80 million (R5.9 billion) investment after a funding round led by Prosus Ventures and Tencent.

Bux, which recently welcomed its 500 000th customer, plans to use the investment to expand its already fast-growing commission-free investment app, Bux Zero.

The funding round was led by Prosus Ventures and Tencent, with participation from additional new investors ABN Amro Ventures, Citius, Optiver, and Endeit Capital. Existing investors HV Capital and Velocity Capital Fintech Ventures also participated.

Bux was the first European company in 10 years to build a fully-fledged brokerage system from the ground up. It is the main neo-broker in the Netherlands and Belgium and was expanding its offering to become a pan-European player, a statement from the company said on Thursday.

“Traditional financial market investing comes with a lot of friction and we firmly believe in the democratisation of access to financial services for the next generation of investors. Existing solutions are expensive, complex and not designed for younger generations,” said Prosus Ventures Head of Europe Investments Sandeep Bakshi.

He said Bux had built the next generation of investing services suitable for even the newest investor, while covering the full spectrum of investment options, including cryptocurrencies.

The firm had experienced impressive growth and were the best-positioned neo-broker to scale across Europe and beyond, he said.

Bux’s recently appointed chief executive Yorick Naeff said: “Younger generations in Europe now realise investing is one of the few viable ways left to create a stable financial future. With this new funding round, Bux will continue to spearhead innovation by implementing advanced features to shape further the future of how Europeans invest.”

Naeff said that in the past three months, Bux Zero had more than doubled assets under management, while the number of active users had grown six-fold throughout the year.

“With interest rates at all-time lows and struggling pension systems, there is a fast-growing appetite to start investing, especially among the younger generations,” he said.

Tencent Strategic Development assistant GM Alex Leung said Bux was the only neo-broker in Europe that offered zero-commission investing without being dependent on kickbacks or payments for order flow.

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