How many Robinhoods is too many Robinhoods? A German counterpart to commission-free trading app Robinhood, called Trade Republic, announced a $67 million Series B funding round, according to a TechCrunch report. The round was led by Accel and Founders Fund.
European fintech startups are often characterized as “clones” of their U.S. counterparts, according to the report. The idea of cloning is to create a more localized fintech leader that might be acquired by a U.S.-based firm to forego “organic international expansion.”
But cloning Robinhood is not a goal for Trade Republic, said its co-founder and CEO, Christian Hecker, in the report. “On paper the offering might look similar, but the positioning is very different,” he said. The fintech is looking at moving into savings and has no plans for a crypto-trading arm. It does charge a fee of €1, but does not charge a commission.
Last year, Trade Republic had its commercial launch, managing €1 billion through the app, according to the report. As of now, it’s only available in Germany and Austria, but will be expanding to more countries.