Germany's Commerzbank has made its first fintech investment through a new venture fund, pumping $12 million into social trading network eToro.
CommerzVentures joins a previously announced Series D round for eToro, taking its value to $39 million. Other investors include the venture capital funds of China's Ping An Insurance and Sberbank of Russia.
Commerzbank joined the increasingly busy ranks of financial services firms with their own fintech-focused fintech VC arms last year. The fund - which is focused on firms in the market maturity phase, while a separate incubator focuses on seed stage startups - has already met with more than a hundred entrepreneurs and companies.
"We have examined quite a number of interesting companies during the past months. Their potential alone shows that we are on the right track," says Bettina Orlopp, member of the CommerzVentures investment committee.
The eToro network, which claims four million registered users in more than 140 countries, enables participants to see, follow and automatically copy the actions of other investors in real time.
Stefan Tirtey, co-managing director, CommerzVentures, says: "EToro is a perfect fit as it has firmly established itself as the leader in social trading and as it is run by ambitious and very talented management."