In our new VC Fintech Switzerland series, Fintechnews.ch introduces different portfolios of investors and venture capitalists.

If you are Fintech Venture capitalist and would like us to feature your Swiss fintech portfolio contact us: (editorial@fintechnews.ch).

To start the series we chose PostFinance’s fintech portfolio.

PostFinance, the financial services unit of Swiss Post, has been actively involved in the fintech space over the past couple of years, investing in young startups, forging strategic partnerships with innovative companies, and taking part in acceleration programs such as F10 and Kickstart.

Through its corporate venture capital (CVC) program, PostFinance has invested in several fintech and insurtech startups, which has allowed it to identify emerging products, services, technologies and business models at an early stage.

“Besides acting as a financial investor, PostFinance CVC strives to create win-win situations between portfolio startups and PostFinance, leveraging its customer base, skills and technology”

explains Tobias Bassi, head of PostFinance CVC.

Its current fintech VC portfolio comprises eight startups, half of which from Switzerland. These companies cover a wide range of segments including payments, insurance, personal finance, and more. They are:

BetterTradeOff (Singapore), a fintech and insurtech startup that has developed a holistic life-planning solution to reflect a user’s unique lifestyle. BetterTradeOff is active in Asia, Europe and Middle East.

Getsurance (Germany), an insurtech startup specializing in digital insurance that allows users to buy insurance products online in just five minutes.

Imburse (Switzerland), a cloud-based “payments-as-a-service” platform. Imburse simplifies the integration of payment technologies into IT systems via a single connection, enabling companies to seamlessly collect or pay out money in any market, any technology, any provider, and for any amount.

­Moneymeets (Germany), a provider of robo-advisor solutions for the financial industry. Moneymeets offers two main products: an insurance robo-advisor and a robo-advisor for professional investment strategies.

RaiseNow (Switzerland), a provider of digital fundraising solutions. RaiseNow offers solutions for all digital touch points – from SMS donations and mobile phone apps right up to peer-to-peer (P2P) event fundraising and donation forms.

Sentifi (Switzerland), a provider of alternative data analytics. Sentifi’s crowd-intelligence platform for financial markets provides institutional and private investors with unique insights on traded companies, currencies, commodities and the events that impact them.

Sonect (Switzerland), which provides a platform that makes financial services easily accessible from anywhere. Through Sonect, every cash register can become an ATM, and thanks to its mobile app, cash withdrawals are simpler, faster, and more cost-efficient.

Wikifolio (Austria), a social trading platform. Wikifolio allows experienced investors to implement and publish their trading ideas into so-called wikifolios, offering less-experienced investors the chance to benefit from their expertise.

Strategic partnerships and fintech joint ventures

But PostFinance’s involvement in fintech isn’t limited to financial participation and investment. The company has also inked several strategic partnerships and collaborations with innovative players that have enabled it to expand its reach and tap into new opportunities.

In 2016, PostFinance formed a joint venture with Axon Ivy to launch Finform. Finform is a Swiss fintech software and services provider that specializes in digital compliance.

Most recently, PostFinance teamed up with Energie Wasser Bern to establish a new startup called Ormera. Ormera provides a cloud-based platform for measuring and billing self-generated electricity. The solution combines smart electricity meters as Internet of things components, with a blockchain infrastructure operated jointly by Swiss Post and Swisscom.

Additionally, PostFinance is the sales partner of insurtech startup TONI Digital Insurance Solutions, which PostFinance acted as seed investor and participated invested in the follow-on round earlier this year.

PostFinance also has ties with Tilbago, a provider of software for processing debt collection proceedings. In addition to having acquired a minority stake in Tilbago, PostFinance has integrated the startup’s solution into its accounts receivable management tool, PostFinance Smart Business.

Featured image credit: © PostFinance Ltd 2017, all rights reserved