Upvest and Shares partner to offer European ETFs and stock investments across Europe

• Through Upvest's Investment-API, Shares provides its European end-customers with access to ETFs and European stock investments for the first time.
• By partnering with Upvest, Shares deepens its product offering, making the platform’s assets universe even more complete, adding EU stocks and ETFs to US stocks and cryptos.

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Berlin, June 6, 2023. Shares, Europe’s community-powered investment app, chooses Upvest, the Berlin-based infrastructure fintech, to expand its investment product offering and geographical presence. Following its successful launch and rapid growth in the UK, Shares will bring its social investment experience to the European stage through Upvest’s Investment-API. For the first time, Shares users in Europe will have access to ETFs and European stocks, including real fractional trading. Upvest's API solution spans across brokerage, settlement and custody services and allows its clients to benefit from real-time investments.

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Designed as a plug-and-play solution, Upvest's API and core banking system enables Shares to build flawless social investment experiences for its end-customers. By holding all BaFin licences for securities brokerage and custody, Upvest can offer secure investment offerings for Shares’ community across Europe. With Upvest's Investment-API, Shares has an infrastructure at its disposal that allows its user base to benefit from the full range of ETFs and European stocks.

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Benjamin Chemla, CEO of Shares: “With Upvest we found a partner that matches our speed and provides us with a cutting-edge, scalable and pan-European solution. We will be able to take social investing to new heights and instantly meet the needs of our users: reliable and promising investment opportunities, coupled with a community-driven experience. Upvest’s Investment-API allows us to expand our investment services to new markets in a fast and sustainable way.”

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“We are happy to welcome Shares as our newest partner on board. With our Investment-API, Shares has everything at hand to enhance its investing platform, accelerate its internationalisation efforts, and expand its customer base across Europe”, says Martin Kassing, CEO and founder of Upvest.

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The integration of Upvest's Investment-API to offer stocks and ETFs across Europe is an important step for Shares in offering new investment services to its end-customers. Shares now has a highly scalable solution in place to develop new investment use cases while exploring further growth opportunities for its own business.

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Shares’ waitlist is open ahead of its European launch later in the year. Users in Europe can already download the Shares app on the App Store and Google Play and sign up to join the waitlist. They will receive communication when the app is available in their territory.

About Upvest

Upvest is a fintech company founded in 2017 by Martin Kassing that empowers other fintechs to provide their end-customers with any type of investment product. To achieve that, Upvest has developed an Investment-API that is easy to integrate for small and large fintechs alike. This allows Upvest clients to offer their end-customers the best experience in the field of capital market investment and retirement planning, save resources and fully concentrate on their core business. Upvest is one of the few fintechs in Europe that can provide its B2B clients with the full range of investment opportunities in the areas of principal broking business, proprietary trading and safe custody business for traditional securities as well as crypto assets. The company currently employs 100 people at its main hub in Berlin. The $42 million Series B financing round was led by Bessemer Venture Partners, with Earlybird and ABN AMRO Ventures doubling down as previous investors and participation of Notion Capital, Partech, 10x Group and Speedinvest.

Press Contact

Konstantin Kotulla, Upvest GmbH

press@upvest.co

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About Shares

Shares is an investment platform that helps its users build their wealth through the power of community.

Shares was built to empower its users with community-powered features including supportive in-app Communities and subscription-level Premium Investors to help audiences at all levels invest, learn and grow together. Global Ambassadors include Venus and Serena Williams, who are supporting Shares’ mission to empower the next generation of investors.

Founded by Benjamin Chemla, François Ruty and Harjas Singh; and with offices in Paris, London and Krakow, Shares closed a $40 million Series B funding round led by Valar Ventures after a successful launch in the UK in May 2022 and is now expanding across Europe, pending licences. 

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Press Contact

Oskar Mackenzie, Shares.io

oscar.mackenzie@shares.io