Investors put in over €35 mn (disclosed amounts only) into these FinTech startups in the last three years. However, this is really just a starting point: as per an Oct. 2012 study by London
New Finance, of the total investments and M&A spend into nearly 350 FinTech transactions globally, Germany's share was less than 0.6%, compared to the UK (ca. 30%) and US (ca. 60%).
In comparison, a recent CB Insights research report estimates US investments into FinTech to cross $2.3 bn in 2013 alone. A total of around $9.3 bn pumped in between 2008-2012, with
startups in Payments, Banking & Corporate Finance taking the lion's share, followed by startups in Capital Markets, Data Analytics and Personal Finance Management.
Is there potential in the Germany / D-A-CH (Germany, Austria, Switzerland) market? After a few weeks since we launched FinTech Forum DACH as the first hub for FinTech startups, investors, banks and mentors in the
German-speaking region, and talking to some of these founders (check out the Q&As here; English versions on the way.) we are convinced there is!
Here is a quick look at some of the top FinTech startups in Germany and their investors. (Disclaimer: this is an informal list compiled from public sources for and we take no responsibility for the completeness, currentness or accuracy of the data. If you
would want me to correct something here, please drop me a line.)
- Fidor Bank AG: (Perhaps one of the only) licensed Web 2.0 bank. Investors: JZ Erste Beteiligungs GmbH, Venture
Capital.de arm of Corporate Finance Partners, Anthemis Group, Xange Private Equity etc.
- Smava: Online credit marketplace. > € 4 mn from Privatbank Banca Sella , Earlybird, Neuhaus
Partners in 2011
- Mambu: Microfinance SaaS provider. $2 mn from Point Nine
and Russian-based Runa Capital in 2013.
- Payleven: Credit card processing (iZettle/Square rival). Rocket Internet , plus over €10 mn from New Enterprise Associates, ru.net, Holtzbrinck
Ventures in 2012
- Paymill: Online payment startup (Stripe rival). Over €14 mn from Holtzbrinck Ventures , Sunstone Capital and Blumberg
Capital in 2013.
- Kreditech: Big data credit scoring and micro-lending (Wonga rival). Multi-million Euros from Blumberg Capital, Point Nine Capital, Heiko
Hubertz (Bigpoint), Global Founders Capital (Samwer Brothers) in 2013.
- Auxmoney: P2P lending platform. $12 mn from Index Ventures, Union Square Ventures in 2013.