Berlin, Germany’s largest fintech hub, is rapidly making a name for itself in the European fintech space. Today, the city hosts some of the region’s most exciting, fast-growing fintech ventures. These cover all aspects of financial services, from banking and payments, to lending and insurance, and are quickly expanding across Europe.

The followings are ten of Berlin’s most exciting fintech startups right now:

 

N26

Launched in 2013, N26 is a German neo-bank and one of the fastest growing banks in Europe. It serves more than 1 million customers, both businesses and individuals, across 17 European markets, and intends to enter the UK market in 2018 and the US market in 2019.

The company partners with fintechs and traditional financial companies to offer its customers best-in-class products such as TransferWise (foreign exchange), Raisin (savings), Clark and Allianz (insurance), auxmoney (credit) and others.

N26 has raised US$215 million in funding so far, and is one of the most well-funded fintech companies in Germany.

 

Smava

Smava is a loan portal that aims to make personal loans transparent, fair and affordable for consumers. Based on digital processes, Smava provides a market overview of 70 loan offers from 25 banks. As of January 2018, Smava had originated over US$3 billion in loans through its platform since inception.

To date, the company has raised around US$135 million, and while the startup is not disclosing a valuation, according to sources, it is around US$300 million with its latest round in January. Smava has been profitable for the last year, and is said to be one of the largest fintech businesses in Germany.

 

Raisin

Raisin is a fintech startup providing savings and investments marketplaces across Europe. The company operates several localized platforms for the German, French, Spanish, and Austrian markets, and more. These allow savers to shop and compare rates European-wide. In February, it launched a dedicated UK site, enabling savers to access deposit accounts in GBP, and another platform dedicated to the Dutch market in August.

Raisin has more than 150,000 customers and has raised over EUR 60 million in funding from investors that include Index Ventures and Ribbit Capital.

 

SolarisBank

SolarisBank is a platform with a full banking license which enables companies to offer their own financial products. Through APIs, partners gain access to SolarisBank’s modular services including payments and e-money, lending, digital banking as well as services provided by integrated third party providers.

The Berlin-based company was founded in 2016 and has raised more than EUR 95 million from renowned investors, including BBVA, Visa, Lakestar, ABN AMRO’s Digital Impact Fund, Arvato Financial Solutions, SBI Group and Finleap.

 

Kontist

Kontist is a fintech startup that offers an automated business bank account with real-time tax calculation, automated bookkeeping and an expense management-minded Mastercard.

The account automatically sets aside income tax and value-added tax on revenues and stores them in virtual sub-accounts, to ensure business owners are never surprised by a tax payment. Kontist also integrates with accounting systems.

Officially founded in 2016, the Berlin-based startup already secured more than EUR 5 million in seed funding.

 

Penta

Penta is a Berlin-based startup founded in 2016 with the goal to make the lives of founders easier. The company offers a digital bank account targeted at startups and SMEs. The offering is designed to meet all of the banking needs of small businesses, and enables founders to open a free business bank account online in minutes. Penta runs on top of banking-as-a-platform SolarisBank.

In June, the company launched a new feature called “Team Access,” which lets business owners issue multiple Mastercards to employees who need to make purchases on a company’s behalf. Penta raised EUR 2 million in seed funding in February, according to Crunchbase.

 

CrossLend

Launched in 2014, CrossLend is a B2B marketplace lending platform that specializes in flexible refinancing via a capital market structure. CrossLend also offers cross-border credit intermediation through cooperation with a partner bank. The company aims to facilitate the borrowing, investing, and trading of money across the globe.

Recently, the company raised EUR 14 million in a funding round led by Earlybird Venture Capital and ABN AMRO’s Digital Impact Fund (DIF) to fuel growth. Besides the investment, CrossLend has also entered into strategic partnerships with SolarisBank and ABN AMRO.

 

Billie

Founded in 2016, Billie offers a fully automated invoice financing platform that aims to “revolutionize small business financing.” Based on big data analytics, fully digitalized processes and a highly scalable state of the art tech platform, the company offers a simple and fast way for small businesses to access capital.

Billie is licensed by BaFin, the German financial market regulator, and has been serving SMEs since June 2017. It raised a EUR 10 million Series A funding round in December 2017.

 

Clark

Clark is an insurtech startup founded in 2015 that offers an “insurance robo-advisor” designed to find the best suited insurance products for customers’ needs and manage their insurance portfolios digitally.

Utilizing its innovative robo-technology, customers receive an assessment of their contracts as well as personalized insurance optimizations. The company claims over 10 million bank customers in Germany now have access to the digital insurance services of Clark via partnerships.

Since its founding in July 2015, Clark has acquired close to 100,000 customers for its digital insurance services. Today, the company manages US$310 million in contract volume.

 

Coya

Founded in 2016 by startup veterans, Coya is a new insurtech player that aims to shake up the insurance world. Working directly with consumers and harnessing artificial intelligence to provide scalable, customizable cover, the company aims to fully digitize the insurance business.

Coya is expected to launch later this year when the firm receives approval from the German financial regulator. The company will start with a renter’s insurance service but plans to expand to insurance products across property, accident, personal liability and personal finance.

Coya has already raised a total of US$40 million for its service from investors including Valar Ventures, the Peter Thiel-backed investment firm, eVentures, La Famiglia and several angel investors.

 

Featured image via Pixabay

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