Christian Hecker and Johan Brenner on Trade Republic’s Fundraising and Growth

Trade Republic co-founder Christian Hecker recalls selling 75% of the company for €600,000 when financing alternatives were scarce. Investor Johan Brenner later helped negotiate a more founder-friendly ownership structure. Both describe the decisions from their own positions in the company’s history.

Hecker introduces Trade Republic as a business he began with co-founders after studying philosophy and working in investment banking. Brenner, a Creandum partner and investor in Trade Republic, previously built an online trading company and worked at Benchmark.

Brenner initially dismissed the opportunity as another German version of an existing brokerage, drawing on his own experience and assumptions about German savers. After reconsidering and meeting the founders, he became interested in their team and product.

Hecker says the early period was not a deliberate choice to avoid fundraising: between 2015 and 2019 he met more than 200 venture investors and received repeated rejections. The team proposed a mobile investment product in a regulated market where relatively few people invested in equities.

The founders joined a Commerzbank startup program after a hackathon, but the bank later decided not to continue backing them. Hecker says the team laid off eight people, moved to Berlin and bootstrapped while developing the business.

He believes the combination of a new mobile-banking model, Germany’s low investing participation and licensing requirements made the early pitch difficult. The team’s thesis about a future pension savings gap helped keep it motivated; this was a founder’s market thesis, not a demonstrated outcome.

The founders initially aimed for a viable, profitable brokerage rather than focusing only on a huge valuation. A student trading competition attracted users to a simulated product and gave them encouragement, although Hecker cannot know how much of the response came from prizes rather than the app.

Brenner wants founders to articulate a vision while remaining realistic. Before investing, he asked how Trade Republic could become a large business given German savings behavior, regulation and the sustainability of payment for order flow.

After the accelerator support ended, the founders met an entrepreneurial brokerage that was prepared to invest but demanded 75% of the company for €600,000. Hecker says they accepted because the alternative appeared to be having no viable business. The figure and circumstances are his account.

By the time Brenner met the team, he says, the product and engagement had improved and the founders had thought carefully about banking infrastructure. He also saw a possible generational shift toward investing for retirement. Creandum had a commercial interest in the investment.

The ownership structure was nevertheless a major obstacle. Brenner says he held difficult discussions with the original investor to make it more founder-friendly, because he wanted the founders to retain sufficient motivation for a long journey. He credits the investor for agreeing to a restructuring; the interview does not specify all its terms.

Hecker cautions that many founders have little negotiating choice when capital is scarce. His advice is to raise what is needed at a reasonable valuation and build a distinctive product. He says obtaining a banking license and early customers changed how investors responded.

Brenner’s investment questions included whether Trade Republic could attract new savers, expand across regulated European markets, retain viable revenue sources and acquire customers economically. He also considered whether the company could build the structures needed to satisfy the German regulator.

Hecker says the team underestimated organic growth from a simple, low-cost offering and reports that roughly 65% of customers then arrived through organic channels or word of mouth. He also argues that banking customers can be loyal. These are company-reported observations, not independent cohort statistics.

Trade Republic does not optimize primarily for trades per customer, Hecker says. It watches assets and recurring deposits because it wants customers to build wealth over time. He contrasts that aim with short bursts of trading during a market event.

He describes a focus on younger customers and says the platform then had about four million clients with an average balance around €8,000. He predicts their wealth will rise as they age; neither that prediction nor the balance figures guarantee individual financial outcomes.

Hecker argues that continental Europe faces a pension savings challenge and sees a market for long-term investing. He says Trade Republic had €35 billion in assets at the time. His pension and future savings claims are the company founder’s thesis, not a complete assessment of European pension systems.

He reports customer survey findings that clients held about 40% of their private wealth with Trade Republic and gives higher average balances for older cohorts. The sample, definitions and independent verification are not provided, so these figures should not be treated as population-wide evidence.

Hecker describes recurring ETF savings plans as an important product: customers can set an amount to invest monthly and cancel. He says customers rarely stop them. His statements about retention are qualitative and should not be read as independently measured zero churn or investment advice.

The founders and investors say fundraising changed as the business gained traction. Hecker describes building relationships over one or two years, making commitments and delivering on them before adding investors. He recalls meeting Sequoia’s Doug Leone during the pandemic.

Hecker says the pitch expanded with each round: establish product-market fit, deepen the German business and then expand across Europe. Brenner says 2023 revenue exceeded an earlier plan, an investor’s retrospective claim. Both emphasize that their company had momentum, without presenting audited performance data.

On how much to raise, Brenner sees a trade-off between dilution, valuation and keeping a cushion. If unit economics work and reasonable capital is available, he believes taking some extra may be prudent. He says successful past investments often seemed expensive at the time, but that observation does not remove valuation risk.

Asked whether follow-on reserves put investors and founders at odds on price, Brenner says Creandum aims to participate in its winners at market-set terms. His statement describes his firm’s approach and interests; potential conflicts depend on the actual transaction.

Hecker says Trade Republic raised in 2022 as higher interest rates and war in Ukraine changed the environment. He describes a “double whammy”: conditions that had supported retail trading and venture valuations could reverse together, making additional capital useful.

In conversations with Ontario Teachers’ Pension Plan, he says, the team contrasted Trade Republic’s reported customer and recurring-savings trends with publicly available data from Robinhood. Hecker presents that comparison as part of the pitch, not as an independent assessment of either company.

He admires Robinhood’s role in opening the category but views traditional continental European banks as Trade Republic’s principal competitors. He says regulation, local product needs and distribution are barriers to expansion. These are the founder’s competitive assessments at the time.

Brenner advises founders to focus mostly on their own business while still learning from competitors. Both guests say building relationships before an investment helped create trust on Trade Republic’s board.

Hecker shares board materials in advance where possible and sends detailed monthly updates. He says the team discusses problems early rather than presenting only positive news. Brenner recommends identifying two or three decisions for a meeting and supplying enough pre-reading to make discussion productive.

Trade Republic begins with a founder discussion, brings functional leaders in to present, then concludes in a smaller group. Brenner says boards should evaluate their skills and contribution as companies mature, rather than assuming investor representation alone creates the best board.

Hecker acknowledges a risk of micromanagement for product-led founders accustomed to deciding every detail. He wants executives who can challenge him and take ownership, while retaining responsibility for company direction. Finding the right boundary remains work in progress.

Brenner sees founder liquidity as a potential source of misalignment: first-time founders may have substantial paper value but no realized wealth. He believes investors should proactively consider opportunities for some liquidity, subject to circumstances and transaction terms.

Hecker recalls that hiring the first employee was especially difficult before funding and stability existed. Building trust with that person and family took months; once the first hire joined, subsequent recruiting became easier.

Brenner says his shift from operating to investing taught him that a founder matters more than an investor’s belief that they can personally fix a company. Hecker says Trade Republic stopped substantial performance-marketing spend and observed almost as many new customers afterward. That is a company-specific observation, not a controlled measurement of advertising effectiveness.

Hecker says the company shifted attention toward ambassadors, affiliates, influencers, brand and customer benefits. He believes trusted advocates can connect the product with a community; he does not disclose a complete cost or attribution analysis.

Brenner recalls passing on Tink when it was a personal-finance app because he doubted the idea. He says the founders later pivoted to an open-banking platform sold to Visa. His lesson is that he underestimated the founders’ ability to change direction.

Hecker worries that Europe lacks enough willing large-scale investment capital and specialized talent, while Brenner is more optimistic about founders and early-stage capital across the region. Both see exit markets and regulation as challenges, though their views of the ecosystem differ.

Brenner criticizes some European merger decisions while acknowledging that dominant platforms can also inhibit competition. These are his views on policy rather than legal conclusions. Hecker describes Trade Republic’s performance-oriented culture and probation process as deliberate choices.

Brenner admires leaders who hire ahead of current needs and consider where a person will fit a year later. Both guests then offer a bullish scenario for Trade Republic’s future: millions more customers, more assets and broader banking services.

Hecker believes European pension pressures will encourage long-term savings and wants Trade Republic to grow with that generation. Brenner’s customer, asset and revenue targets and Hecker’s aspirations are projections by an investor and founder, not promises or current results. The guests thank Stebbings for the conversation.