citybiz+ Tradier Raises $24.6 Million in Series B Funding

Tradier, a Charlotte, N.C.-based retail brokerage firm, has closed on $24.6 million in a Series B funding round led by Peak6 Strategic Capital, a Chicago-headquartered venture firm with offices nationwide.

Cambridge, Mass.-based F-Prime Capital and Mexico’s KF Business Ventures also participated. Both are existing investors. Founded in 2012, Tradier has so far raised $30.7 million, including $3 million in convertible notes.

“Tradier’s mission is to create a network where traders can choose their own platforms to meet their evolving needs, while being empowered by great educational content and low fees,” said Dan Raju, Tradier’s co-founder, CEO and chairman.

TradeKing alum

“Our embedded brokerage model powers us with intelligent data to better understand retail behaviors across over 150 connected platforms every day,” added Raju, who has previously served as head of Global Technology Operations & Infrastructure at The Associated Press.

Jay Coppoletta, Peak6’s chief corporate development officer, said his firm was “impressed with Tradier’s simple, yet scalable business model and unique mix of products and services.”

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Raju’s co-founders at Tradier are all his former colleagues from the online broker TradeKing. They are: Peter Laptewicz, Jeyashree Chidambaram and Jason Barry. Laptewicz, who has also worked at Etrade, serves as president of Tradier, notably overseeing API development. Chidambaram is vice president of brokerage technology, while Barry is the company’s chief technology officer.

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‘Graduation Effect’
Tradier says it had a record 2022, with traders on its platform averaging $30,000 in account size and executing an average of 150 trades each month. Its equity share and option contract volumes doubled year-over-year. Tradier serves accounts in 150-plus countries and has 60-plus noted educational partnerships. Tradier built its mobile trading platform via a 2021 acquisition of Rho.

Into 2023, the company is citing a “graduation effect” — a new base of active retail traders demanding more custom platforms and content engagement. To meet those demands Tradier plans to expand its product offerings to include a platform and content hub, portfolio margin, an expanded API offering, global debit funding, futures and crypto to service this growing market segment.