Pair Finance
The debt collection fintech started with great ambitions. And soon thereafter experienced the first personnel quarrels. Showroom manager Christine Kiefer (previously: Bain & Company, Goldman Sachs, Billpay) left, startup specialist Stephan Stricker took over. If everything does not deceive, then it seems to be going better after the choppy first year. Of artificial intelligence, machine learning etc. pp. is not so often the speech. But there are now one or the other tangible statement, including the entry of Zalando (supposedly wanted to take over the e-commerce giant Fintech even completely). In addition, the startup claims to have more than 200 customers. And: If you look at the Finleap job portal, then Pair Finance has been one of the ventures for months, looking for the most diligent new employees (currently: 20 vacancies). It does not have to be that crazy. Nevertheless, as a little courage maker ever:
5-7 Congrats
Valendo
Also at Valendo – 2015 launched as “online pawnshop” (after the example of the British provider “borro.com”) – it should have been one or the other management issue. This is not only told in the environment of Finleap. But it also speaks that, if one enters “Valendo” with Northdata, in the appropriate entry one or other “no more managing directors” finds. And otherwise? You hardly hear anything about the venture, much like Billfront does. Allegedly, there has been a pivot to the working capital fintech. And then the story is told that Valendo – thanks to superior technology – was one of the few lenders to reduce its exposure to Auctionata (a Berlin startup that spectacularly failed in 2017). May it all have been like this. Does not convince us yet, especially as there are hardly any employees on LinkedIn and Valendo is not exactly overrepresented in the job markets (while Pair Finance, as I said, is looking for 20 people, Valendo has only one vacancy, according to the Finleap homepage) , So, with all willingness to correct us at some point:
2-4 Congrats
financeAds International
So it’s an unusual finleap company, as financeAds are much longer than Finleap. To be more precise: The Nuremberg financeAds GmbH & Co. KG was already the market leader for performance-based marketing in the German-speaking area, before the Franks set up “financeAds International GmbH” together with Finleap in 2015 in order to drive their own business model beyond the DACH region , After all, what you hear, this idea has worked out very well. The international branch of financeAds should already be profitable, rumors suggest that this could even be the first real exit of the Berlin Fintech incubator. Conclusion: In a case where you could not do so much wrong wrong, Finleap has apparently done a lot right, even if in the affiliate business model is not the very, very big digital fantasy.
7-9 Congrats
Infinitec Solutions
Seemed to be the right fintech at the right time. Because when all the world (or at least the financial world) suddenly began to talk about digitizing corporate banking after retail banking, Finleap put the right startup on the market in the form of Infinitec Solutions (business model: B2B platform for Financial solutions for SME business). However, this is now almost a year ago. And even if the first customers are to be connected to the platform by now: names have not been published so far, except for the Italo-Fintech Beesy, which belongs to the Finleap-family (see below). What’s wrong? According to information from “Finanz-Szene.de” the Infintec people antichambrierten long and hard at Deutsche Bank. In spite of mutual esteem, however, it did not come to a conclusion, because the country’s largest money house prefers to rely on its own solution (“Blueport”) in business with large medium-sized companies and Postbank’s corresponding tool for business customers. From Infinitecs it says: “We speak with several European banks and partners.” Therefore, with a little goodwill:
4-5 Congrats
element
As Insurtech is not quite our construction site, because we are actually more interested in banks and bank Fintechs. What can be said anyway? The insurance industry is described as “slow-moving” as well as challenging in the sense that the low-hanging fruit is already being picked by players who hit the market in the wake of the first internet hunt (Check24 …). In terms of element this means that it is probably too early for a comprehensive assessment anyway. What should not be concealed: 1.) Element has collected at the start of 2017 equal to a double-digit million. And 2.) A few weeks ago in the Serie A round a further 29 million euros were added, i.a. from the Signal Iduna and the Japanese SBI Investment. After all, that is already indicative that Finleap with Element so wrong can not be on the road – because such lush early-stage funding in this country are by no means the rule. Drum, slightly unsuspecting …
6-7 Congrats
Fintech Solutions / Perseus / Beesy
Fintech Solutions is a joint venture between Finleap and DVAG
Perseus is a cyber security startup
Beesy is a recently founded Italo spin-off from Infinitec
In all three cases, we want to appeal to the right to refuse to give evidence, in the first case, because you can hardly look into it from the outside, and in the second because we have much, much less idea of Cyber Security than Insurtech, and in the third case, it is too early for a serious (and even dubious) rating. If you come on in the 82nd minute, you will not get any marks from the kicker.