US-based Tiger Global Management’s aggressive global investment strategy has seen it lead a $40 million funding round for Robinhood-like Australian digital broker Stake.
The New York investment firm has previously backed local startups Tyro and Safetyculture, alongside the likes of Coinbase, Airbnb and Clubhouse, and was joined in the round by partners of London-based DST Global.
Stake, founded in 2017 and bootstrapped until now, plans to use the funds to extend its global expansion, having built customer base of 330,000 after launching in New Zealand, UK and Brazil. Australian investors contribute nearly three-quarters of the investment platform’s base.
Like US-based Robinhood the broker offers offers retail investors access to more than 4,000 US stocks at $0 brokerage, making its money on exchange rates. And like Robinhood, Stake was caught up in January’s GameStop trading frenzy by retail investors, suffering outages before it halted trades in the US video games retailer.
Stake CEO and Co Founder, Matt Leibowitz said trades in US shares were just the start of the company’s plans.
“We started with US shares, but that’s just the beginning. Our DNA is embedded in access, and we’ve got exciting plans to give Aussies even more opportunities both in the short-and long-term,” he said.
“We set out to change the game for retail investors, and were self-funded for the first four years of our journey. We’ve proven the model and now have the chance to expand our product and bring our zero-brokerage service to more retail investors,”
Stake also lets investors trade fractions of shares.
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