Smarkets has announced the closing of a “significant” minority investment from Susquehanna Growth Equity (SGE).
The company’s Series A funding came back in 2013 and, five years prior, it had raised £3.8m ($5.4m) as Smarkets started out in 2008.
Now, it welcomes SGE to its group of investors, joining the likes of Passion Capital and Deutsche Telekom.
The latest investment will allow Smarkets to accelerate its rollout in America; it is currently live in Colorado with the sportsbook app SBK and is set to go live in Indiana.
In addition, the funding will also boost the SBK app’s position in the UK mainstream betting market, after it launched in August 2019.
The investment will expand its development of new customer-based products and focus on industry-leading prices on sports, politics and current affairs.
While also continuing to obtain global engineering talent, Smarkets aims to double its headcount by the end of 2022.
As well as expanding in America and the UK, the Series B funding round will also allow the company to expand into new and recently entered markets like Denmark and Sweden.
Smarkets Founder and CEO, Jason Trost, said: “At Smarkets we have always been guided by our vision of fixing betting with the best prices and products, and SGE is just as excited as us to challenge the status quo. This is a huge endorsement of our technology and will allow us to further upend the industry by offering bets as close to fair value as possible.
“This new investment will help take us to the next level and beyond in the UK, US and other international markets. I’d like to thank the women and men that work and have worked at Smarkets for getting us to where we are.”
Susquehanna Growth Equity MD, Scott Feldman, added: “We are delighted to be able to join Smarkets on their upward journey. We immediately identified with their vision of using technology to take on the betting industry’s big operators by providing the fairest odds in the world and maintaining a clear focus on product excellence.
“Smarkets have achieved a huge amount with little investment to date, and we can’t wait to see them go from strength to strength as they expand further into both the US and UK mainstream market.”
