Brokerage and social trading platform ayondo has acquired the TradeHero brand. Singapore-based TradeHero offers a mobile-only social trading app that competes with ayondo’s web-based brokerage platform.
The deal expands Germany-based ayondo’s footprint in Singapore and offers it access to TradeHero’s stock-market-simulation app that has been ranked the #1 finance app in the Apple app store in 90+ countries. It is expected to bolster ayondo’s 220,000 users from 195 countries.
The acquisition is strategic for ayondo and part of a string of expansion efforts. In a press release, ayondo CEO Robert Lempka said, “For ayondo, mobile technology is a big part of the Group’s strategy for expansion and growth. The TradeHero brand is extremely well established in Asia and was the missing piece in our product range.” Today’s news comes almost a year after ayondo partnered with KGI Fraser Securities to launch KGI Contrax, a platform for investors to trade Contracts for Difference.
Regarding the transition, TradeHero co-founder Dominic Morris, who will now serve as the head of innovation for ayondo Group, said, “ayondo and TradeHero share the same vision; that is, to democratise the world of investing through easy-to-use, disruptive technology and knowledge sharing.”
ayondo began its expansion into Singapore in 2014 after securing $4 million in funding from Lumnior Capital. Most recently, the company announced a $117 million reverse takeover agreement with Starland Holdings, a Singapore-based property developer. The deal, which has yet to be finalized, will mark ayondo as the first fintech company to IPO on the Singapore Exchange (SGX).
TradeHero debuted its app at FinovateAsia 2012 in Singapore. Prior to today’s acquisition, the company had raised a total of $10.5 million. ayondo most recently debuted the newest version of its platform at FinovateEurope 2013.
