Financial services provider SBI Group and Arvato Financial Solutions, a financial services subsidiary of media group Bertelsmann, co-led a €26.3m ($28m) series A round for Germany-based financial services marketplace SolarisBank yesterday.
The round included financial technology company builder FinLeap, venture capital fund Yabeo Capital and Hegus, all of which previously contributed to a seed round of undisclosed size, as well as financial services firm UniCredit, according to company executives.
Founded in 2015, SolarisBank operates an online platform where external partners such as banks, fintech developers or other technology companies can offer banking services. It launched the platform in March 2016 when it received its banking licence.
The company is currently operating in six European countries but plans to form joint ventures with Japan-based SBI in order to expand into Asia in future.
Yoshitaka Kitao, chief executive of SBI, said: “SolarisBank’s banking-as-a-platform model provides partners with digital and easy-to-integrate banking services for which we anticipate strong demand from Asia. We want to tap into this demand together with our network partners.”
Frank Kebsch, Arvato’s CEO, added: “As a leading provider of cross-border digital financial services, we see the significant technology advancement of a banking platform.
“By cooperating with SolarisBank, we are able to significantly strengthen our performance capability for our business partners.”