These are our contenders for “FinTech of the Year” : Solarisbank AG
The industry has become big and has long since grown out of its infancy. There are so many companies shaping the industry but not all are equally well known. Who are the companies that form the glue between finance and digital technologies?
We still consider it important and relevant to present an award to the interesting and for us most relevant German FinTech/startups. An award from the industry in which we are all active, for the industry. Not bought, not externally influenced, reserved for our independence. Since we are diverse and also everyone has different views and focuses, this has always resulted in a good mix. The nominations come from the heart, but the final judging process is ours and completely separate from us.
At this year’s Transactions 20 conference in Frankfurt, we would also like to award this year’s prize for the Fintech of the year 2020 lend. In total we have 15 fintechs nominatedwhich the jury will evaluate in the coming weeks according to certain categories. As every year, you are of course also in demand as a strong voice of the fintech community to award the audience award through your voting. Voting will start soon, but in advance we would like to give the nominated companies the opportunity to introduce themselves.
Solarisbank AG
Solarisbank is Europe’s leading banking-as-a-service platform. As a technology company with a German full banking license, Solarisbank enables other companies to offer their own financial services. Via APIs, partners integrate Solarisbank’s modular services directly into their own product offerings. In addition to digital bank accounts and payment cards, the platform also offers identification and credit products, custody of digital assets, and services from integrated third-party providers.
Facts and figures about Solarisbank
- Sales Channel: B2B2C
- Target group: Corporate customers
- Country of destination: Europe
- Status of funding: Series C
- Further financing planned?: still unclear
- Name of the product(s):
Banking-as-a-Service platform
“Solarisbank enables businesses to offer digital & legally compliant financial products.”
The Solarisbank business model
Our business model is based on a B2B2X approach. This means that we provide our partners – as we call our customers – with the complete banking infrastructure and take care of the regulatory requirements so that they can focus on providing the best possible service to the end customer. Our partners include established digital companies, fintechs, corporates and also banks.
Solarisbank: the founders & investors
Solarisbank emerged from the Berlin-based company builder finleap in 2016. As of today, Solarisbank has raised more than €160 million from renowned and international investors, including ABN AMRO’s Digital Impact Fund, BBVA, finleap, Global Brain, HV Holtzbrinck Ventures, Lakestar, Samsung Catalyst Fund, SBI Group, Storm Ventures, Visa, Vulcan Capital and yabeo Capital. CEO of Solarisbank is Dr. Roland Folz.
Milestones: what Solarisbank has achieved so far
The most important milestones in Solarisbank’s history include:
– The receipt of our German full banking license from BaFin after only nine months.
– Our three financing rounds (most recently a Series C financing round of EUR 60 million).
– The establishment of Solaris Digital Assets GmbH, a wholly owned subsidiary of Solarisbank, for our crypto custody business.
– Our partnership with Samsung for the mobile payment service “Samsung Pay”, which exemplifies our vision of contextual banking.
– The launch of our in-house core banking system, which already runs accounts for several partners, including Vivid Money and Samsung.
– Doubling our revenue annually since 2017.
– Exceeding the 400,000 end customer account mark
Success in 2020
This year has been very eventful for Solarisbank. If we had to highlight one event, however, it would be the successful closing of our series C financing round. Despite the difficult circumstances we faced with the Covid pandemic, we were able to raise an oversubscribed round of EUR 60 million. This funding round will be instrumental in helping us accelerate the build-out of our pan-European platform.
What makes Solarisbank so special?
With our vision of contextual banking, we are playing a decisive role in shaping one of the biggest trends in the financial world, which is reflected in our rapid and sustainable growth. Over the past four and a half years, we have become one of the most important drivers of innovation in the German fintech market. For example, one third of the fintechs nominated for the 2019 Fintech of the Year Award use our Banking-as-a-Service platform to offer their product.
What makes your team?
Unlike ordinary banks, our team consists of almost 50 % developers and product specialists. So we see ourselves much more as a technology company with a banking license. In addition, the Solarisbank team is made up of over 50 different nationalities. So our employees literally come from all over the world. This diversity of cultures and expertise makes the Solarisbank team a unique mix.
Where do you see yourselves in the future?
We are seeing a wide variety of industries increasingly dipping their toes into the financial services industry – with the Big Techs leading the way. BBVA’s partnerships with Google and Uber in the US make this clear. The response of banks in Germany to this development remains to be seen. We believe that the future clearly belongs to these customer-centric business models, and contextual banking will play an important role in this.
Solarisbank has established itself as the go-to platform in Europe for contextual banking, creating an extensive ecosystem in the process. Our goal as market leader is to build a pan-European platform.
Last words
Our website provides detailed information on our product landscape and our APIs. We also regularly publish opinions, experiences and ideas from our employees on developments in banking and technology on our blog: https://www.solarisbank.com/blog/
