Bitpanda, one of Europe’s fastest-growing fintechs, closed a $263 million Series C funding round, the company said Tuesday.

• The round, which was led by PayPal founder Peter Thiel's Valar Ventures, values the company at $4.1 billion. It comes just months after a $170 million Series B funding round in March that valued the firm at $1.2 billion and made Bitpanda Austria's first-ever tech unicorn, which means a startup that's worth at least $1 billion.
• The Vienna-based investment platform said it will use the fresh capital to double down on technology, international expansion and growth. 
• Billionaire hedge fund manager Alan Howard, REDO Ventures and existing investors LeadBlock Partners and Jump Capital also participated in the round.
• Founded as a bitcoin exchange in 2014 by Eric Demuth, Paul Klanschek and Christian Trummer, Bitpanda has since expanded beyond crypto to offer the trading of stocks, precious metals and exchange-traded funds.