At the beginning of 2019, set the German fintech financing record: the Berlin-based startup N26.
A total of 686 million euros of venture capital flowed according to a survey by the consulting firm Barkow Consulting 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, 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 financings 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:
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.
Exclusive:
An N26 customer stolen 80,000 euros – and the bank is overwhelmed
The acclaimed bank startup recently shut down the phone service. For severe customer problems, N26 is not responding well, as several cases show.
Phishing gate:
These are the responses from the N26 customer service network
Our article about an N26 customer who had stolen 80,000 euros caught a lot of attention on the net. Here are the most interesting posts.
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.
Insurtech startup:
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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:
Zinsportal Weltsparen takes over Frankfurt MHB-Bank
Usually, banks 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.