eToro is planning its listing

Stockbroking platform eToro is attracting interest from bankers and investors about its listing after abandoning plans to go public through a merger with a SPAC (special purpose acquisition company), according to CEO Yoni Assia. He said as quoted by CNBC: "We are definitely looking at the stock market. We will definitely eventually become a listed company. When would be the ideal time to do this? We always evaluate the right opportunity at the right time and the right market".

Assia also said that eToro has built good relationships with exchanges, including Nasdaq USA. "eToro has already made efforts to list," the platform official suggested, noting that the listing issue is more a matter of "when" rather than "if."

"It's our business, right? Retail investors come to eToro to buy shares of a listed company. So we are happy to engage and build these relationships over time as we grow more," emphasized Yoni Assia.

Figures presented by eToro to CNBC show the platform posted revenue of $630 million in 2023, up from $631 million in 2022. But the company reported profit for the first time in 2023, noting that it had turned a profit before of interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization (EBITDA) of $100 million. eToro did not provide a comparable figure for 2022.

eToro relies mainly on trading-related fees, such as spreads for buy and sell orders, as well as fees for non-trading activities, such as withdrawals and currency conversion. The platform also earns from a member product called eToro Club. This is an expensive premium membership model, with the lowest level ("silver") priced at $5,000. eToro Club offers users a personalized service based on their trading habits, as well as lower fees, discounts and crypto returns.

eToro now has 35.5 million registered users and over 3 million funded accounts. The company surpassed $10 billion in total client assets (under management) in 2023, according to its financials.

Assia also revealed that eToro has acquired the content automation company Deep. This is an area the company plans to focus heavily on in 2024. According to Assia, eToro has made heavy use of artificial intelligence (AI) in its business, especially in content and marketing. About 80 percent of eToro's marketing, graphics, content and localization integrates AI, Assia added. AI is also used in investing and trading. On the other hand, AI-related stocks have attracted a lot of attention among the eToro user base.

eToro, a company that allows users to buy and sell stocks through an online platform, originally planned to list following a merger with a SPAC - FinTech Acquisition Corp., which belonged to Bancorp founder Betsy Cohen. But eToro abandoned those plans, which would have given the company an $8.8 billion valuation, CNBC notes.

After delaying initial listing plans, eToro raised $250 million from investors in March 2023, valuing the company at $3.5 billion. The transaction was backed by SoftBank Vision Fund 2, ION Investment Group and Velvet Sea Ventures.

Then, in another transaction, eToro allowed employees and investors to sell $120 million worth of shares to existing shareholders in a secondary securities sale. That deal valued the company at about $3.5 billion.