SBT Venture Capital, the venture arm of Russia’s national savings bank Sberbank, has invested in eToro, a social network for investors. The Cyprus based social network allows members to follow the activities of their fellow investors in real time.
The company’s stated mission is to “revolutionize the way people interact on the financial markets, making the trading experience more sociable, simple, welcoming and transparent.”
As well as SBT Venture Capital, this round saw eToro attract further investment from Spark Capital and BRM Group, as well as credit from the Silicon Valley Bank. Although the total value of the investment has not been disclosed, in November Firrma.ru reported that the company was hoping to raise $15 million.
The company plans to put the funds from this latest round of strategic investment towards broadening its product range and expanding to new regions, including China and Russia. The social network currently has around 4 million registered users in more than 140 countries.
Sberbank announced back in 2012 the launch of a $100 million fund to invest in Russian and foreign startups. In 2013, SBT participated in a $12 million Series B for Sequent Software, a California-based firm specializing in the development of mobile-commerce software. Then, SBT took part in a Series A round worth 3 million euros for Walkbase, a Finnish startup that publishes a retail-analytics solution.
The fund also invested in British fintech startup Red Zebra Analytics and London-based accelerator Startupbootcamp in February and April of this year respectively. In June, STB led a $8 million investment round in American banking app Moven. In July it invested in Swedish company NetGuardians.
Earlier this month the fund announced an investment of $5 million in Hong-Kong based fintech service Advanced Merchant Payments (AMP).
