Tiger Brokers counted Interactive Brokers and the phone maker Xiaomi among its backers. Its app let Chinese investors buy shares listed in New York and Hong Kong, markets that were hard for them to reach. The Beijing company began building in June 2014 under its founder, Wu Tianhua. In March 2019 it listed on Nasdaq itself, under its formal name, UP Fintech Holding.

An App for Overseas Markets

Wu Tianhua started the business to serve a growing class of Chinese investors who wanted to own stocks like Apple or Alibaba directly. Tiger built the app, the research and the account tools in Beijing. The app charged low commissions and offered news and data in Chinese. Wu and his family held all of the Class B shares, which gave them voting control.

Eight Dollars, Then a Pop

UP Fintech sold 13 million American Depositary Shares at $8 on March 19, 2019, above its range of $5 to $7, and raised about $104 million. The stock closed its first day at $10.92, up 36.5 percent, under the ticker TIGR. The company kept growing outside China as rules there tightened. In the second quarter of 2026 it reported record revenue of $182.3 million, 1.3 million funded accounts and $60.7 billion in client assets.

Cover: Tiger, Jujoen. Art Institute of Chicago, public domain. Chosen for a tiger (Tiger Brokers).