Micro-investing platform Wombat has closed its Series A funding round, raising more than £4m to support its ambitious growth plans, forthcoming product launches and international expansion.

The round was led by long-time backer Fuel Ventures, which first invested in the business in 2020. A four-week crowdfund also gave Wombat users and broader community access to the round and closed 300% over target, contributing to a total raise of £4.2m.

Since its inception, Wombat has experienced rapid growth as novice investors – its core demographic – have flocked to access its range of theme-based exchange-traded funds (ETFs) and curated UK, US and EU fractional shares.  It was recognised by App Radar as the fastest-growing investment app in 2021 after registering the largest annual increase in downloads.

In the past year, Wombat has launched a number of initiatives including its instant investing account offering commission-free trading with a unique cashback reward on all buys.

It has also appointed to its advisory board heavyweight industry figures including David Davies, former CIO at Hargreaves Lansdown, Iqbal Gandham, former MD at eToro and Chad West, ex-Revolut communications director. Last month it announced that Fazal Yameen, formerly of US investment unicorn Stash, had joined the growing roster of advisers.

With the Series A funding now in place, Wombat will accelerate plans to expand internationally – first into Europe, where it estimates it has a total addressable market of 100m users – and increase its investment in marketing and product development.

“Wombat has come a long way in the last three years and closing this funding round is another key milestone on our journey to help more budding investors embrace the habit of saving and investing for their futures,” says Kane Harrison, CEO and co-founder of Wombat.

“Against a hugely challenging macroeconomic backdrop, we felt it was appropriate to seek funding with a fair valuation and we feel our decision was rewarded with a raise that will help us achieve our immediate goals in terms of growth, expansion into Europe and product development.

“We would like to thank all the investors who have supported us and see our potential for growth given our progress to date and the huge opportunity in front of us. The funding will help us deliver on our plans to encourage millions of people to invest and safeguard their futures while offering them a range of engaging and compelling ways to do so.”