Germany is increasingly establishing its credentials in the European fintech scene, and for many experts, it could very soon replace the UK as the region’s fintech leader.

Investment in German fintech startups jumped to US$421 million in 2016, up 118% from 2015’s US$193 million, highlighting the tremendous growth of the industry.

Today we look at some of the top fintech startups that are helping put Germany on the fintech map. Sure we missed many, so just comment if you think you belong to this list.

N26

N26 is a German direct bank that enables its customers to manage their bank accounts though their smartphones. Headquartered in Berlin, N26 offers services throughout the Eurozone, with the exception of Cyprus and Malta, and has some 500,000 clients.

N26 provides for free a basic current account and a debit Mastercard card to its customers. Customers can also request an overdraft, investment products and premium current accounts.

N25 has raised over US$52 million in funding from the likes of Axel Springer Plug and Play Accelerator, Early Bird Venture Capital and Horizons Ventures.

Kreditech

Founded in 2012, Kreditech is an online lender that uses machine-learning technologies to provide access to better credit for the unbanked.

Kreditech’s product offerings include consumer loans, a digital wallet and a personal finance manager designed to help customers manage their credit score and play their spending.

Kreditech covers more than five markets worldwide, including Russia, Mexico, Spain and Poland. It has raised over US$495 million in funding from Rakuten, the International Finance Corporation, and Global Founders Capital, among others.

Figo

Figo develops a Banking-as-a-Service platform that aggregates financial data from over 3,100 banks and financial institutions. The platform connects modern services with more than 55 million online banking accounts in Germany and Austria, and allows users to access the sources of finance, notification services, security, as well as user and customer management services.

Figo does not only provide an established banking API, but also an entire banking service platform supporting a vast number of innovative banking solutions.

Figo has raised over US$10 million in funding so far from Deutsche Borse, Berliner Volksbank Ventures, and others

Auxmoney

Auxmoney owns and operates an online portal for peer-to-peer money lending services. The platform matches individual lenders with individual borrowers, and has enabled over 50,000 investors fund more than 80,000 loan requests with a total volume of over €500 million. Private savers and institutional investors directly invest in approved borrowers of different score classes.

Auxmoney is integrated into N26 Credit, serving the bank’s customers. The company has raised over US$198 million in funding from the likes of Union Square Ventures and Index Ventures.

Raisin

Raisin is a leading pan-European marketplace for savings products. The company lets customers open deposits at attractive interest rates across Europe free of charge. All deposits are 100% guaranteed up to €100,000 per saver and bank by each national Deposit Guarantee Scheme in accordance with EU directives.

Raisin operates several localized platforms for the German, French, Spanish and Austrian markets. It has more than 90,000 registered clients with over €4.3 billion in deposits, and 35 partner banks from 17 countries with more than 140 products.

Raisin has raised over US$64 million in funding from investors that include Index Ventures and Ribbit Capital.

Scalable Capital

Scalable Capital is a digital investment service that uses proprietary software to provide portfolios that are dynamically optimized with a primary focus on risk management.

The company leverages technology to offer first class investment services, previously only available to large institutional investors, at a fraction of the cost.

It provides clients with personalized, globally diversified portfolios designed to create long-term wealth. It monitors and manages their portfolios continuously with its proprietary risk management technology.

Scalable Capital has raised over US$45 million in funding so far.

Spotcap

Spotcap lends to small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs), offering applicants a loan decision within 24 hours after its algorithm rates their creditworthiness. The company uses an innovative credit scoring technology that directly evaluates real-life business data to provide fast and flexible financing.

Spotcap has enabled thousands of SMEs to innovate, remain competitive and grow. Its mission is backed by top investors including Rocket Internet, Access Industries, Holtzbrinck Ventures, Kreos Capital, Finstar Financial Group and Heartland Bank.

Headquartered in Berlin, Spotcap operates in Spain, the Netherlands, the United Kingdom, Australia and New Zealand. The company has raised over US$66 million in venture capital so far.

Smava

Smava is loan portal that seeks to make consumer loans transparent, fair and affordable.

The company, based in Berlin, provides a market overview of 70 loan offers, ranging from 1,000 to 120,000 EUR from 25 banks, enabling consumers to choose which offers suit them best. The company claims that on an average loan of 10,000 EUR, a consumer can save up to 2,000 EUR.

In 2017, Smava originated more than 1 billion EUR in loans, with a total of over 3 billion EUR altogether.

So far, the startup has raised 60 million EUR in funding from the likes of Earlybird, Verdane Capital, and Runa Capital.

Aevi International

Aevi International develops an ecosystem and marketplace for payments, value added services, B2B apps, and more. It provides banks, acquirers, and merchants with a white-label, hardware-independent and fully integrated end-to-end solution portfolio which extends merchants’ cross-border capabilities.

Aevi International is a subsidiary company of Diebold Nixdorf and is headquartered in Germany with operations in the United Kingdom and the Czech Republic.

The company has raised more than US$33 million in funding.

Orderbird

With over 8,000 business clients in the UK, Ireland, Germany, Austria and Switzerland, Orderbird is one of the leading point-of-sales (POS) systems for the hospitality industry in Europe.

The award-winning iPad POS system Orderbird POS is a complete POS solution that is ideal for bars, restaurants and clubs. The cash register system can be individualized according to a business’ needs. It provides detailed reports per day, month, waiter and shift.

The system operates via WiFi with pre-configured printers that the company sells on its website.

Featured picture via pixabay