Hlozbach quit Penta in April 2021, with the initial aim of building a crypto API. But the subsequent tech rout led to a rethink about the importance of prudent capital management among startups and investors.

Says Holzbach: "In talking to over 100 of our customers and our angel investors, we found out: treasury management has become more important than ever. Over the past few years, especially in Europe, founders were always told not to get distracted with their admin and finance setup. However, finding a good banking stack and an easy but safe way to manage a startup's capital is crucial to master the challenging funding market that forces founders to be more cost efficient."

Pile's mission is to help startups find a place to keep their capital safe, independent from individual banking risks, and earn interest along the way to extend their runway.

According to the latest news, more than 1,000 startups have experienced financial hardship due to the SVB failure, principally because they had most of their assets in the bank instead of spread across multiple accounts.

Within the next week, Pile will come out of its closed beta, offering treasury for high-growth startups in Europe. Until then, interested startups can sign up for a waitlist or use one of 100 invite codes the startup gave to VCs within the ecosystem.

"We onboarded the first 20 customers over the last couple of weeks to get as much feedback as possible on our product," says Holzbach. "However, as the solution is urgent, we decided to speed up the process and give access gradually over the next few days to help startups from the seed stage to series C to manage their capital better."

Pile is backed by prominent fintech founders such as Max Tayenthal from N26, Carolin Gabor from Finleap, Luka Ivicevic from Penta, Tuomas Toivonen from Holvi, and Mario Götze.