German banking-as-a-Service platform Solaris is reportedly seeking an emergency cash injection of £100 million and will put the business up for sale if it fails to raise fresh funds.
The reports come amid a turbulent time at the Berlin-based firm, which recently flogged its Engage business in the UK to Suits Me and laid out plans to lay off a third of the workforce. The overhaul is expected to hit around 240 of the firm's 700 employees
The call for fresh cash comes just eight months after Solaris raised €96 million in a Series F funding round and secured a financial guarantee of up to €100 million capital equivalent, enabling it to deliver on a major contract with motor association Adac. That investment came after Solaris reported a €56 million loss for fiscal year 2022.
However, the firm is reportedly facing a cash crunch owing to delays in sales revenue from the Adac contract and the scale of the write off of its UK EMI business
According to reports in in German publication Finance Forward, a new funding round of between €100m and $150m is expected to be rubberstamped in the coming days but Solaris is also exploring a possible sale of the company should the funding fail.
Solaris is said to be worth around €1.6 billion. Potential buyers are rumoured to include Japanese business conglomerate SBI and BNP Paribas.