Upvest taps BlackRock to make investing more accessible for Europeans

By Gloria Methri

Berlin-based FinTech Upvest has announced its partnership with BlackRock to make investing more accessible for millions of investors across Europe.

BlackRock’s broad asset management expertise in ETFs combined with Upvest’s efficient investment API can power investment offerings for millions of investors. Wealth managers, banks, and FinTechs can build modern investment experiences in months instead of years, relying on Upvest’s low-friction API-based infrastructure offering.

As part of the partnership, BlackRock participated in Upvest’s €30 million 2023 funding round alongside existing investors Bessemer Venture Partners, HV Capital, Earlybird, Notion Capital, ABN Amro Ventures, and 10x Capital.

Upvest’s API-based investment infrastructure enables real, physical fractional investing across ETFs, stocks, and mutual funds, lowering the entry barriers for investments to as little as €1 in any asset class.

The growth of ETF portfolio adoption in retail can also be supported by Upvest’s capabilities with the help of its in-house portfolio engine and re-balancing. The new wave of investors may evolve from single-product investments to broader portfolio adoption as education and investor objectives evolve.

Upvest collaborates with distributors looking to evolve their digital investment infrastructure to reduce cost and complexity or expand geographically.

Timo Toenges, Head of iShares EMEA Digital Wealth business at BlackRock, said, “Millions of Europeans are embracing investing for the first time to build a better financial future for themselves. BlackRock’s partnership with Upvest will drive innovation in how Europeans access markets and make it cheaper and simpler to start investing. Across Europe, ETFs are at the core of these new propositions and often the default choice for investors, as a transparent, low cost and easily understood starting point for a new generation of investors.”

Martin Kassing, Co-founder and CEO at Upvest added, “We are incredibly proud of this partnership as a way to increase investment adoption for millions of people. With only a fraction of the European population investing in stocks and ETFs, we feel the urge to provide a better investment infrastructure to companies facilitating easy and affordable investment experiences. Together with BlackRock’s investment expertise, we can now serve any financial institution to upgrade their investment offering.”