German startups in the financial sector have never collected more money in one quarter than between the beginning of January and the end of March this year. The collected venture capital summed up to 686 million euros, according to a recent survey of the consulting firm Barkow Consulting. This is a doubling compared to the same quarter of the previous year and an increase of 77 percent over the previous record quarter.
Decisive were some unusually extensive financing rounds. The record holder is the smartphone bank N26, which received 260 million euros in January. In second place is the digital car insurer Friday, which raised 114 million euros at the beginning of March. With its financing round of 110 million euros in third place lies the Insurtech Wefox, followed by the interest portal Raisin with 100 million euros.
Investment in other countries is increasing
Barkow Consulting points out that the startups in their financing rounds do not only attract equity. For example, Friday has also exchanged company shares for media services with the new shareholders ProSieben Sat.1 and the German Media Pool. This means that the startup for the equivalent of the ceded shares will get advertising spots on television or ads in other media.
Even if the current financing record for the German fintech sector is gratifying. It looks less rosy compared to other countries, KPMG’s advice recently warned. Accordingly, global fintech investments more than doubled in the past year compared to 2017. While the volume of financing in Germany declined. IPOs are also included in KPMG’s figures, and the startup definition is very broad.
Also published on Medium.