ETF Investing Providers in Europe

Revolut

Nik Storonsky was born in Dolgoprudny, Russia, and moved to London in 2006 to work as an equity derivatives trader, first at Lehman Brothers and later at Credit Suisse. Vlad Yatsenko was a software engineer who'd spent years building financial systems. In 2015 they sat down and asked a question that should have occurred to banks years earlier: why does spending money abroad still cost so much? The answer they built was Revolut — initially a prepaid card with no foreign exchange fees, then a multi-currency account, then a trading platform, then an insurance product, then a business banking offering, then something that's increasingly hard to describe as anything other than a full financial operating system. Revolut didn't unbundle banking so much as rebuild it from scratch for people who found the existing version frustrating and expensive. The numbers now are genuinely striking for a company that started with two people and a card. Revenue reached £4.5 billion in 2025, up 46% year on year, with pre-tax profit rising 57% to £1.7 billion. The customer base has passed 75 million retail users, plus 767,000 businesses. The company employs more than 12,000 people and operates in more than 40 markets. In July 2026, a secondary share sale valued Revolut at $115 billion — up from $75 billion just eight months earlier, and more than the market capitalisation of Barclays. It remains Europe's most valuable private technology company by a wide margin. The milestone that mattered most arrived in March 2026: a full UK banking licence from the Prudential Regulation Authority, ending a five-year application process that had become one of the most-watched regulatory sagas in European fintech. The licence means Revolut can now protect UK deposits up to £120,000, offer authorised consumer credit, and compete directly with high street banks for mortgage and lending business. It's the piece that transforms Revolut from a very successful payments app into a regulated bank. The global licensing map is filling in quickly, with one persistent gap. In July 2026 Revolut became the first global fintech granted a full Australian Deposit-taking Institution licence by APRA — a regulator whose capital requirements have defeated several domestic neobanks — and launched Revolut Bank Australia. In August it secured a French banking licence, a significant step given that France is its largest European market outside the UK and that holding a local licence rather than passporting from Lithuania changes how it can compete there on lending and deposits. It has also opened its first bank outside Europe, in Mexico. The exception is the United States, where a banking charter application filed in 2024 remains pending — in a period when the OCC has rejected applications from both Wise and bunq. Around the licences, the product keeps widening past banking: private markets access for European retail customers through funds from Apollo, Ares and Partners Group; a partnership with OpenAI bringing ChatGPT Go to premium tiers; eSIM data plans; and an airport lounge network starting in Copenhagen. The original thesis — that banking could be cheaper, faster, and simpler — hasn't changed. What has changed is that Revolut is no longer only selling banking.

Founded 2015

DEGIRO

DEGIRO is a Dutch discount broker built on a single observation: the marginal cost of executing a stock trade is software and settlement, not human labour — so the fees European retail investors were paying bore little relation to what a trade actually cost. Founded in Amsterdam in 2008 by former BinckBank employees, it started as an institutional broker, opened to retail investors in 2013, and undercut the incumbents by a wide enough margin to expand across the continent within a few years. The product is deliberately unglamorous. No gamification, no social feed, no notification congratulating you on a €5 deposit. DEGIRO offers direct access to dozens of exchanges across Europe and the US, real market data, and low per-trade pricing, and it assumes you already know what you want to buy. That utilitarian positioning has aged well as the novelty of investing apps has faded and European retail investors have matured past the onboarding experience into simply wanting to invest efficiently. DEGIRO is no longer independent. German broker flatex AG agreed to acquire it for around €250 million in December 2019, with the legal merger into flatexDEGIRO Bank completing in May 2021. The combined group trades on the Frankfurt Stock Exchange, joined the MDAX in March 2025, and converted from an AG to a European Company (SE) at the end of 2025. It now runs three brands — DEGIRO for international European markets, flatex for Germany and Austria, and ViTrade for active traders — together serving more than 3.5 million customers across 16 countries, with over €95 billion in assets under custody and more than 75 million transactions a year. Group revenue reached €559.8 million in 2025 with net income of €160.4 million, up from €71.9 million in 2023. The regulatory record is less tidy than the pricing story. The Dutch AFM fined the bank €2 million in 2022 over late and inaccurate reporting of unusual transactions, reduced to €797,500 on appeal in 2025. BaFin has issued a series of penalties: €1.05 million in 2023 for breaches of banking supervisory rules, accompanied by additional capital requirements and a special representative appointed to oversee remediation; €560,000 in December 2025 for advertising free investment services without clearly disclosing that a processing fee applied; and €1 million in April 2026 for failing to publish inside information promptly. Leadership has churned alongside it — CEO Frank Niehage resigned in 2024 after a public dispute with founder and major shareholder Bernd Förtsch, and former Morgan Stanley Europe CEO Oliver Behrens took over that October.

Founded 2013

Scalable Capital

Scalable Capital was founded in Munich in 2014 by an unusually complementary quartet: Erik Podzuweit, a former Goldman Sachs banker; Florian Prucker, his co-CEO to this day; Adam French, who built the UK business; and Stefan Mittnik, an econometrics professor who gave the company its quantitative risk-management backbone. The product they launched in 2016 was a robo-advisor — algorithmically managed ETF portfolios for German savers who had money in zero-interest accounts and no relationship with the stock market. The early growth hack was distribution rather than marketing: a 2017 partnership put Scalable's digital wealth management inside ING Germany's retail bank, and BlackRock joined the cap table the same year. By 2018 it was managing €1 billion and ranked among the fastest-growing robo-advisors anywhere. The decision that transformed the company came in 2020: the launch of Scalable Broker, a flat-fee trading platform built around a subscription model — the PRIME tiers — rather than per-trade commissions. It arrived at exactly the moment a generation of Germans discovered investing, and it made recurring ETF savings plans, the culturally German path into the market, effectively free at scale. Scalable became one of continental Europe's two dominant neobrokers, locked in a now decade-defining duel with Berlin's Trade Republic, with the low-cost incumbent DEGIRO fighting the same war from the Netherlands. What distinguishes Scalable strategically is how far it has pushed vertical integration. When the EU banned payment for order flow — the revenue model most neobrokers were built on — Scalable's answer was to co-found its own trading venue, the European Investor Exchange, with Börse Hannover in 2023, keeping headline trading costs low by bringing execution in-house. It launched its own World ETF with DWS and MSCI in 2024, and opened private equity access to retail investors through a BlackRock partnership in 2025. Independent reviewers note the obvious tension in this design: when a broker routes client orders to its own exchange, execution quality and spreads deserve as much scrutiny as the visible fees — a fair caveat about a structure that is otherwise a genuine competitive moat. The capstone came in September 2025, when the European Central Bank granted Scalable Capital a full banking licence, making it a CRR credit institution supervised by BaFin and the Bundesbank. The licence collapsed the remaining dependency on partner banks: Scalable now handles custody, clearing, settlement, deposits, and lending itself. Interest-bearing deposits launched within weeks, spread across Scalable's own bank and partner institutions with the distribution visible in-app, and a flexible credit product followed — loans from €1,000 to €250,000 with no fixed term. Podzuweit's framing of the ambition is lifelong: everything a customer and their family need for investing, saving, and financing, from the first savings-plan euro to retirement. It's the same full-stack endgame Trade Republic reached via its own licence — the two German rivals have independently concluded that the neobroker business ends in becoming a bank. The scale now backs the ambition. Scalable Capital manages more than €30 billion for over one million customers across Germany, Austria, France, Italy, Spain, and the Netherlands, with around 845 employees across Munich, Berlin, London, Vienna, and Milan. A $175 million round led by Sofina and Noteus Partners in June 2025 — joined by Balderton, Tencent, and HV Capital — took total funding past half a billion dollars, three months before the banking licence landed. A decade in, the company that started by automating ETF portfolios for cautious German savers has become one of Europe's few vertically integrated investment banks for retail: its own exchange, its own ETF, its own banking licence, and a product that now touches every stage of a customer's financial life.

Founded 2014

Anaxago

Anaxago is a European investment platform that democratizes access to private market deals, letting retail investors back startups and SMEs that would normally require deep pockets and insider connections. The platform sidesteps the gatekeeping that has long defined venture capital, offering curated equity stakes in growth-stage companies across tech, real estate, and other sectors. Founded in 2014, it operates across multiple European markets and has processed hundreds of millions in investments, positioning itself as a bridge between ambitious entrepreneurs and everyday investors seeking portfolio diversification beyond public markets. What sets Anaxago apart is its focus on transparency and accessibility. Rather than opaque fund structures or minimum investment requirements that exclude ordinary savers, it lets users invest from relatively modest amounts while maintaining rigorous due diligence on every deal. The platform handles the mechanics of investment management, shareholder rights, and secondary market liquidity—functions that typically require armies of lawyers and compliance teams. It's part of a broader shift toward democratized finance, where technology makes previously exclusive opportunities available to anyone with capital and appetite for risk. In the European fintech landscape, where crowdfunding and alternative investment platforms have proliferated, Anaxago has carved out credibility through regulatory compliance, deal flow quality, and a genuine commitment to investor protection. It represents how fintech can unbundle traditional wealth management, making private market exposure a normal part of retail investing rather than a privilege reserved for the wealthy.

Founded 2014

Freetrade

Freetrade is a London-based investing app that stripped away the gatekeepers between everyday Europeans and the stock market. Founded on the principle that trading shouldn't cost you a fortune in fees, it lets you buy fractional shares of thousands of stocks and ETFs for zero commission—something that would have seemed impossible a decade ago. The app democratizes retail investing by making it accessible, transparent, and genuinely affordable. While traditional brokers buried fees in spreads and commissions, Freetrade charges nothing for trades and offers a refreshingly straightforward pricing model. You get real-time data, a clean mobile interface, and the ability to build diversified portfolios without watching fees erode returns. In a European market where retail investing was often treated as a luxury product for the wealthy, Freetrade positioned itself as the alternative—serious investing without the pretense or the price tag. The platform appeals to younger investors who want to own individual stocks and ETFs but were previously priced out or intimidated by legacy brokers. Today, Freetrade represents a shift in how Europeans think about stock ownership: not as something reserved for the financially elite, but as a fundamental right. It's embedded itself in the broader fintech movement toward dematerializing finance and making capital markets participation the default rather than the exception.

Founded 2017

Avanza

Avanza is Sweden's largest independent online brokerage, a no-frills investment platform that democratized stock trading for Swedish retail investors two decades ago. What started as a scrappy alternative to traditional banks has become the go-to app for millennials and Gen Z who want to trade, invest, and save without paying legacy banking fees. The platform strips away unnecessary complexity—no advisors, no jargon, just direct market access at transparent prices. Avanza operates in that interesting middle ground between a neobank and a pure trading platform. It offers savings accounts, pension accounts, and investment accounts with a sharp focus on user experience and low costs. The company has built a cultural following in Sweden, becoming almost synonymous with retail investing for a generation that views traditional brokers as relics. Beyond just equities and funds, Avanza has expanded into savings products, retirement planning, and financial education—positioning itself as a genuine financial companion rather than just a transaction layer. Its dominance in the Nordic market reflects a broader European shift toward direct-to-consumer investment platforms that compete on transparency, speed, and mobile-first design. Avanza exemplifies how fintech can win by doing one thing exceptionally well and then expanding thoughtfully into adjacent categories. The company's influence extends beyond Sweden into a broader shift in how younger Europeans think about investing: without gatekeepers, without unnecessary fees, and entirely on their own terms.

Founded 1999

Portu

Czech investment culture has shifted noticeably over the past decade — from a population that primarily held cash savings to one increasingly comfortable with regulated investment products, particularly among the generation that came of age financially after 2010. Portu was founded in Prague in 2018 to serve that emerging investor base with a digital wealth management platform offering diversified ETF portfolios, retirement planning products, and child savings accounts under a single mobile-first interface. The product was deliberately designed for first-time investors — clear language, low minimum investments, transparent fees, and educational content that helps users understand what they are actually buying rather than the opaque advice models of traditional Czech wealth management. Portu is part of the WOOD Group ecosystem, giving it the institutional backing of one of Central Europe's significant investment firms while maintaining the digital-native product experience that its target users expect. In the Czech wealth tech landscape, Portu has built one of the more successful examples of a Central European robo-advisor reaching genuine consumer scale — proof that the broader European thesis about digital wealth management for first-time investors translates well into markets where investment culture is still being formed.

Founded 2018

Vivid Money

Vivid Money is a Berlin-based fintech that collapsed the traditional distinction between banking, investing, and spending into a single mobile-first experience. Launched in 2020, it positioned itself as the European answer to all-in-one financial apps—a place where you could manage your checking account, invest in fractional shares and crypto, and pay with virtual cards, all without leaving the app. The platform built its early reputation on speed and accessibility. Account opening took minutes rather than days. The investment side felt more like TradingView-for-consumers than stuffy wealth management. Virtual card creation was instantaneous, and the app's design sensibility leaned toward the minimalist and modern rather than corporate banking's beige aesthetic. Vivid positioned itself against traditional banks' glacial pace and regulatory burden, while also differentiating from pure-play neobanks that didn't offer investing. It moved quickly to add crypto features when the market demanded them, and secured backing from tier-one investors who believed in the all-in-one thesis. However, the company faced headwinds from regulatory tightening around crypto and the broader fintech funding winter. In late 2024, reports emerged of operational restructuring and potential insolvency, marking a sobering turn for what had been one of Europe's most closely watched fintech challengers. Vivid's arc—from breakthrough disruptor to distressed turnaround—reflects the volatility of the European fintech landscape and the challenge of building a diversified financial platform without institutional heritage or captive customer bases.

Founded 2020

Wealthify

Investing in the UK has historically required either enough money to interest a private bank or enough financial confidence to navigate a self-directed brokerage account — neither of which describes the typical UK saver with a few thousand pounds set aside who would benefit from being invested rather than holding cash in a low-interest savings account. Wealthify was founded in Cardiff in 2015 to serve that customer with a robo-advisory platform that accepted investments from £1, used a short questionnaire to determine risk profile, and managed diversified portfolios automatically. The proposition was deliberately accessible: no minimum investment, transparent fees, no jargon, and an interface designed to make investing feel approachable rather than intimidating. Wealthify was acquired by Aviva in 2017 — one of the UK's largest insurance companies — providing it with both distribution and the institutional credibility that helps newer investment platforms attract conservative savers. The Cardiff-based team has continued operating with significant autonomy as part of Aviva's wealth offering. In the UK robo-advisory landscape — which has been smaller and more fragmented than the US equivalent — Wealthify built a particularly accessible position for first-time investors, and its acquisition by Aviva represents one of the cleaner examples of a robo-advisor finding a strategic home with a major financial services group rather than struggling to build sustainable scale independently.

Founded 2015

Enerfip

Enerfip is a French renewable energy crowdfunding platform that lets retail investors back solar, wind, and biomass projects with minimal friction. Rather than requiring the traditional wealth checks and gatekeeping that institutional investors face, Enerfip democratizes green energy financing—you can start investing from as little as €100 in projects across Europe. The platform has financed over €100 million in renewable capacity since 2014, positioning itself as a serious player in the intersection of climate finance and retail investment. What sets Enerfip apart is its focus on operational projects with real yields, not speculative green ventures. Its model works because the renewable energy sector desperately needs capital, and Enerfip sits comfortably between the retail investor appetite for impact and the genuine need for project-level funding. The platform doesn't just move money; it acts as a curator and risk manager, vetting projects to ensure investors understand what they're buying into. In a European fintech landscape crowded with robo-advisors and crypto platforms, Enerfip remains distinctly mission-driven—proving that profitable finance and environmental impact aren't mutually exclusive. The company reflects a broader European shift toward sustainable investing, where returns and responsibility are expected to move in tandem.

Founded 2014

B2 Impact

B2 Impact is an investment platform built for a generation that cares where their money goes. The startup combines wealth management with values-driven investing, letting users build portfolios aligned with their beliefs—whether that's climate action, social justice, or gender equality. Unlike traditional advisors who treat ESG as an afterthought, B2 puts impact at the center from day one. The platform offers curated investment strategies from environmental sustainability to financial inclusion, alongside real-time tracking of how your investments actually perform on social and environmental metrics. You're not just buying index funds; you're seeing the measurable impact your capital creates. It's democratizing impact investing, which traditionally lived in the private wealth world, and making it accessible to younger investors who reject the false choice between returns and values. B2 operates in a crowded space of robo-advisors and ESG platforms, but distinguishes itself through genuine integration—your impact metrics aren't bolted on, they're woven into the algorithm. The European fintech landscape has embraced ESG quickly, but B2 has positioned itself as the activist layer that older wealth managers lack. For a generation of investors skeptical of traditional finance, it offers permission to invest without moral compromise.

Founded 2020

Nordnet

Pan-Nordic retail investing requires more than translating a Swedish product into Norwegian, Danish, and Finnish. Each Nordic market has its own pension system, tax-advantaged investment accounts, regulatory framework, and consumer expectations — complexity that has kept many investment platforms confined to a single national market. Nordnet was founded in Stockholm in 1996 with the explicit ambition to build a genuinely Pan-Nordic investment platform, and has spent nearly three decades doing it. Its platform serves customers across Sweden, Norway, Denmark, and Finland, offering stocks, funds, ETFs, pensions, and savings products tailored to each market's specific tax-advantaged account structures. The cross-border depth is genuinely unusual — most Nordic financial services companies that operate internationally do so through separate national entities with separate products, rather than the integrated platform approach that Nordnet has built. The company is publicly listed on the Stockholm Stock Exchange and competes directly with Avanza in the Swedish market while occupying dominant positions in several other Nordic countries. In the European retail investment landscape, Nordnet's combination of cross-border integration and decades of operational depth makes it one of the most credible regional brokers in any European market — a model that the rest of Europe has been slower to replicate.

Founded 1996