eToro Acquires Fintech Company Gatsby at $50M

In a trail of mergers and acquisitions, Israeli multinational social trading platform eToro has acquired financial technology startup, Gatsby. 

The acquisition aligns with eToro’s values and culture seeing that Gatsby is also at loggerheads with Robinhood, one of eToro’s key competitors. In value, the acquisition is worth about $50 million both in cash and a common stock deal.

Notably, eToro made this M&A move to expand its offering and register its presence throughout the United States. eToro affirmed that 

“This acquisition is a key step in the ongoing diversification of eToro’s offering to US users, which is currently focused on crypto and stocks.” 

The deal will finally be completed now that the multi-asset company has received regulatory approval from the Financial Industry Regulatory Authority (FINRA). eToro has been on this acquisition deal since December 2021 when it first filed an application for regulatory approval. 

The Israeli-based brokerage firm eToro started fifteen years ago as a fintech firm that shifted its focus to the blockchain and crypto ecosystem as a gradual growth began. 

Co-founded by Jeff Myers and Ryan Belanger-Saleh, Gatsby’s commission-free options and stock trading app was established in 2018. So far, the fintech company has 20 people as its members of staff. Gatsby is targeted toward young traders and merchants, specifically Gen Zers and millennials.

Gatsby and eToro Stands to Benefit From the Merger

Regarding the M&A deal as an advantage, Ryan Belanger-Saleh one of the co-founders said, 

“We’ve always thought of them as the cool older sibling we’d love to hang out with. In terms of product and culture, it’s a great fit and we’re really excited about the next chapter in our shared future.”

For eToro, this would mean that it can now provide its users with access to a safer and simpler way to trade options. This would be done by utilizing the Gatsby advanced technology which would be integrated into eToro. All twenty employees at Gatsby will join the teams at eToro.

This deal comes a few days after Sequoia Capital and Andreessen Horowitz (a16z) supported crypto venture capital firm Dragonfly to acquire Metastable, Ethereum’s (ETH) first investor.