Dr Robert Oppenheim (head) and Eric Romba from the international legal practice Osborne Clarke have advised the Berlin-based financial start-up Upvest on its successful licensing by the financial regulator BaFin. Upvest Securities GmbH (a subsidiary of Upvest GmbH) has been granted a total of five licences under the German Securities Institutions Act (Wertpapierinstitutsgesetz, WpIG), including for financial commission business and proprietary trading as well as for the custody and administration of securities.
With the five licences, Upvest can offer its customers - fintechs and companies of all kinds - access to custody solutions and asset classes such as shares, ETFs or cryptocurrencies. Via API interface, all Upvest products can be seamlessly integrated into the own end customer offering.
Launched in 2017 as a blockchain startup, Upvest now has 90 employees, with 150 expected by the end of the year, according to the company. Upvest's investors include HV Capital and Earlybird, as well as N26 co-founder Maximilian Tayenthal.
Dr Robert Oppenheim, who led the project, and Eric Romba have been partners at Osborne Clarke since 1 February 2022.
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