It never gets boring in the fintech world. It is founded, invested and new products are brought to the market. It is sometimes difficult to keep track. From now on, we take over and summarize the most important news of the past month in a compact overview.
David buys Goliath: Raisin takes over MHB Bank
If you have money in your account, you can also go shopping. Only a few weeks ago, the Berlin Fintech Raisin (in this country especially known under the brand “World Savings”) around founder Tamaz Georgadze raised a whopping 100 million euros in funding. The Berlin-based MHB Bank took over at the beginning of the month – and thus no strangers The small transaction bank with 39 employees already has the clearing accounts, to which Weltsparen customers deposit their investment amounts. Raisin can now offer easier financial products across the EU as a result of the full-bank license that has now been taken over. As early as 2017, Raisin acquired PBF Solutions in the UK.
Paydirekt receives cash injection
The major banks and savings banks are shooting around 60 million euros into the online payment service provider Paydirekt – and thus far less than expected. Paydirekt’s expectations have remained low since their launch in 2015. Only around 2.2 million users count the company. Therefore, are German banks planning another online payment solution? Nobody knows exactly, but the industry portal finanz-szene.de wants to get such rumors from the banking industry.
Actually it was the goal of the German banking industry, the Pay service Paydirekt as an in-app solution for the Smartphone ausurollen. Big banks and the savings banks, however, continue to emphasize at the same time Paydir want to hold.
Amazon introduces monthly bills and waives fees
Buying on bills was always possible at Amazon, but then accounted for a fee of 1.50 euros. This amount can save customers in the e-commerce giant in the future. Amazon is now offering the toll-free collective bill. Customers can collect their goods for a month and only pay at the end by bank transfer – a short-term interest-free loan makes it possible. The monthly billing is generally only available to private customers. To use the option, customers must have a billing address in Germany or Austria.
Apple launches Apple Card in the US
As the biggest innovation in the card business for 50 years and as a collaboration that will change the whole experience of a credit card, Apple CEO Tim Cook and David Solomon of Goldman Sachs praised Apple’s credit card, which will be launched in the US starting this summer, together with Mastercard should. The necessary infrastructure should cost the American bank about $ 200 million. The card will be both virtual and “real”, but should not carry a number and a security code, but stored in the virtual wallet on the iPhone – and is strictly speaking less a card than an integration of a new service in the iPhone.
For payments by credit card, Apple promises the repayment of one to three percent of the expenses.
Zalando throws Apple Pay back from the payment mix
The online retailer Zalando throws Apple Pay back from its payment mix after just three months of testing. Apparently it was not possible with the Apple payment service to redeem coupons or gift cards, it says to the decision. A Zalando spokeswoman explains the step to t3n: “We always want to offer our customers the best possible shopping experience. In addition to a large selection of products, this also includes the choice of different shipping methods, delivery to packing stations or parcel shops as well as the redemption of vouchers and gift cards. For Apple Payments, however, these options are currently unavailable for technical reasons. “How many Apple Pay payers Zalando actually had was not communicated. Whether the service returns to the shop is unclear.
Wefox rises with mega-funding in the top league
The Berlin insurance start-up Wefox around founder Julian Teicke collected in another financing round 110 million euros. Investors include Mubadala Investment Company and its newly created European Ventures Fund, Goldman Sachs and Chinese investment firm Creditease, as well as existing investors AngelList, Horizons Ventures, Idinvest Partners, Seed Camp, Speedinvest and Target Global. With the financing round Wefox has risen to the top league of fintech companies in Germany: Only N26, Raisin and Kreditech collected more money so far.
Digital car insurer Friday gets capital in a new round of financing
Not only Wefox could look forward to the new account balance in the month of March. The Berlin Insurtech Friday also gets a boost. Together, the Baloise Group, SevenVentures and German Media Pool are investing 114 million euros in capital and media services, which should be a decisive factor in both product development and sales.
For example, the company intends to increase its awareness of the media by increasing its media presence and, secondly, to offer further property insurance this year. Friday had caused a sensation with the product “number per kilometer” last year. Only the kilometers driven are decisive for the premium that a customer had to pay for his car.
Cooperation: Solarisbank and Alipay make common cause
The Berlin-based Solarisbank is now cooperating with the Chinese payment provider Alipay. For the time being, it will process Alipay payments only for traders in Germany – but in future the cooperation is to be extended to other European countries as well. “This cooperation has tremendous potential for everyone involved,” says Solaris Board Member Roland Folz. So far, only the financial services provider Wirecard handled payments for Alipay. With around 700 million users, it is one of the largest payment services worldwide.
Revolut gets into the headlines
Since its launch in 2015, Fintech Revolut has been considered a British success story. But now the good reputation cracks: At the beginning of the month reported the tech magazine “Wired” in a post about the “human costs” of the rapid rise of the digital bank “. In the past year, the number of employees rose sharply from 150 to more than 750. In addition, there are now reports of possibly thousands of illegal transfers, which have been undetected in recent months. Between July and September 2018, Revolut is said to have turned off its money laundering surveillance system designed to stop suspicious transactions.
There have been too many false positives, according to The Daily Telegraph, citing internal records.
FIS takes over Worldpay
The consolidation in the market for payment services continues: FIS wants to take over Worldpay. For $ 35.5 billion Fidelity National Information Services wants to buy the competitor Worldpay. After the merger of the two large corporations Worldpay shareholders around 47 percent and FIS shareholders around 53 percent of the combined companies hold. In January of this year, First Data was topped by Fiserv for $ 22 billion. https://www.faz.net/aktuell/finanzen/worldpay-kurs-steigt-nach-uebernahmeangebot-16096917.html
Figo and Finreach merge and plan new fintech
Figo and Finreach Solution join forces and work together under new leadership. With united forces, the two companies want to build an international platform. Both company locations in Berlin and Hamburg are to be preserved. The new company is managed by Markus Dränert, Cornelia Schwertner and Taner Akcok. Around 90 employees are now working for the startup. As part of the transaction, Finleap will also invest “a high seven-digit amount to finance further growth” in the merged entity. Figo shareholders such as Deutsche Börse and Berliner Volksbank are to remain on board the merged company, but not participate in the current financing, it said.
A new giant is born
A pan-European digital investment and financing platform for companies of all sizes, from startups to large corporations – this is to bring the result of the merger of the Austrian crowdinvesting platform Finnest and the Finnish Invesdor. The service portfolio resulting from the pooling of offers ranges from equity and bonds to IPOs, borrower’s note loans, syndicated loans and mezzanine capital to other debt instruments.
The typical financing volume is between 250,000 and 25 million euros per issuer. The headquarters should be Helsinki, however with additional offices in Vienna, Stockholm and Bratislava.
The causation Wirecard: discharge by external investigators
The Wirecard cause also troubled the mind in the month of March. For weeks, the company was suspected of manipulating sales in Asia. The allegations had brought the DAX Group in severe distress, stocks fell at times by more than thirty percent of their value. But now the management in the corporate headquarters in Aschheim exhales. Because: One has found no evidence of a so-called “round-tripping”, ie fictitious sales without a business background, or corruption, according to a report by the company commissioned law firm Rajah & Tann from Singapore. There is no information about a possible criminal offense. However, Wirecard is not yet completely relieved, as individual local employees in Singapore may have been prosecuted according to local law, it goes on to say. So the story continues. Wirecard announced that it will file a lawsuit against the British newspaper “Financial Times” and is now demanding compensation for its shareholders.
Also published on Medium.