In a reversal of the trend for banks to buy fintech startups, European saving platform Raisin is proposing a takeover of its long-time service bank, MHB Bank of Frankfurt.
The Raisin platform connects as many as 62 partner banks - including Belgium's biggest bank KBC, ICICI Bank UK and the German digital banking as a service platform solarisBank - with more than 160,000 Raisin customers from 31 different European countries, brokering more than $11 billion in deposits since inception.
In February, Raisin closed a $114 million Series D funding round, earmarking the cash for strategic acquisitions and further international expansion.
Commenting on the MHB move, Raisin CEO and co-founder Tamaz Georgadze says: “Together with MHB, we can continue to develop — and seamlessly integrate — the services we offer customers, partner banks and distribution partners.”
MHB Bank was founded in 1973 with its seat in Frankfurt, and has been in the hands of US private equity group Lone Star since 2005. MHB supports clients with business models that require a banking license, including fintechs like Raisin, CreditShelf and Exporo, handling all aspects of the value chain related to account management, customer identification and financial transactions.
Georgadze says the acquisition will enable the firm to grow its services across the entire European Economic Area and streamline the onboarding process for deposit banks as well as distribution partners like o2 Banking of Telefónica Germany and N26.
“With the changes this takeover makes possible, we will be able to offer better services more sustainably to our customers and partners," he says. "We want to grow ‘deposits as a service’ into a widely-accepted market standard for banks across Europe.”
The proposed acquisition is awaiting approval form German financial regulator BaFin and the European Central Bank. The value of the transaction has not been disclosed.