solarisBank lands $67.5m in Series C round
solarisBank, the German banking-as-a-service fintech, has landed a $67.5 million Series C funding round.
The round was led by German venture capital (VC) firm HV Holtzbrinck Ventures. Existing backer yabeo – an early-stage German investor – also committed a follow-on investment.
solarisBank’s CEO Roland Folz
Other new investors included Vulcan Capital, Samsung Catalyst Fund and Storm Ventures.
BBVA, SBI Group, ABN AMRO Ventures, Global Brain, Hegus and Lakestar are all investing again.
The fresh capital puts the fintech at a new valuation of $360 million, according to TechCrunch.
Customers
The banking infrastructure company services a host of German fintechs. These include challenger banks Tomorrow, Insha and Vivd.
They also include trading app Trade Republic, as well as business banking start-ups Penta and Kontist.
In all, solarisBank works with roughly 70 companies, tapping around 400,000 customers through these partnerships.
Lead up to investment
The round began in December before the coronavirus hit Europe.
“A lot of investors looked at their portfolio companies and the appetite to look at something new was not there,” solarisBank’s CEO, Roland Folz, tells TechCrunch.
“But everything worked out eventually as around half of the funding comes from existing investors.”
solarisBank’s strategy and shareholder relations head, Layla Qassim, says the fintech originally sought just $45 million (€40 million).
Instead, the start-up got an additional $22.5 million. “We were overwhelmed by the interest of investors in spite of COVID-19,” says Qassim.
Product focuses
solarisBank, which has a full German banking licence, will continue to focus on regulation and modularity. By modularity, it means offering solutions which can be easily integrated into existing systems.
The fintech’s solutions span business and consumer lending, digital banking, cards, payments, virtual IBANs, and Know Your Customer (KYC).
Recently, it launched ‘Splitpay’ with Amercian Express. The new solution allows users to choose a repayment plan with AmEx when buying items on German e-commerce platforms.
Looking ahead, the fintech wants to launch local IBANs Europe’s most important markets. This would help solarisBank expand across the continent as a banking infrastructure provider.
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