A total of 686 million euros of venture capital flowed. This is according to a survey by the consulting firm Barkow Consulting. Which is in the first quarter of 2019 to financial startups from the Federal Republic. From January to March, German fintechs have collected so much money as never before in a previous quarter. During this period, they were more than twice as high as in the same period of the previous year. That is 77 percent more than in the previous record quarter of Q4 2018 and already more than half of the total. Which was achieved in 2018 as a whole.
The number of financing’s fell, both compared to the previous quarter by 21 percent and compared to the same period of the previous year by 30 percent. The fact that the total of 26 laps in the first quarter of 2019 nevertheless ensured a German fintech record quarter was due to several outliers.
What N26 did
The banking startup N26 collected 260 million euros in January and rose to a rating of 2.3 billion euros to Unicorn. The financing round led by US investor Insight Venture Partners alone was a record. Never before has a German fintech received a larger sum. Recently, the company announced its expansion into Brazil and had to deal with allegations of bad customer service.
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Insurtech startups
114 million euros flowed in early March to the Berlin insurance startup Friday. 75 million came from the Swiss company mother Baloise. The remaining 39 million received Friday in the form of media services from the new owners Sevenventures and German Media Pool. It was the biggest startup funding so far, led by Christoph Samwer, the former Lendico boss.
Also in early March, the Berlin based Insurtech Wefox collected 110 million euros. Since mid 2018, the company has been looking for new donors. Ultimately investing in the Mubadala Investment Company, the sovereign wealth fund of Abu Dhabi, the investment bank Goldman Sachs and the Chinese financial firm Creditease. The company with 200 employees now wants to expand beyond Europe, for example to China.
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The interest portal Raisin, known in Germany under the brand Weltsparen, received funding of over 100 million euros in February. Existing investors include Index Ventures, Paypal, Ribbit Capital and Thrive Capital. Among other things, the money should flow into strategic acquisitions. It was said at that time. In early March, Raisin then announced the purchase of the Frankfurt MHB Bank. An unusual step, usually banks take over young companies to accelerate their digitization, not the other way around.
Fintech startups
Zinsportal Weltsparen takes over Frankfurt MHB Bank Banks usually buy young companies to accelerate their digitization. Raisin, the startup behind the platform Weltsparen, is now turning the tables.
Whether immediately further fintech record quarters follow, is questionable in view of these outliers. The auditors of KPMG had recently analyzed that the number and investment volume of fintech deals in Germany in 2018 fell. While it went up in all sectors calculated. In Germany Fintech investors have become choosy, so the study makers. The lenders focused now on the startups, which they trust the largest sales potential. The record rounds from the first quarter of 2019 should also speak for this.
Also published on Medium.