PREMIUM — The #German #challenger #bank N26 surpassed one #million #users, the bank announced yesterday — a significant feat for any neobank. The bank has doubled its customer base since last August. To put this in perspective, U.K.-based challenger bank Revolut, which just last month reached unicorn status thanks to a $ 250 million series C […]
Bank Innovation
Just when you thought big FIs were starting to shy away from cryto-trading, #Sowa #Labs, a #subsidiary of #German retail investment exchange, #Boerse #Stuttgart, announced today that it has developed a prototype app for secure trading in cryptocurrencies. The app is called Bison. It is scheduled to roll out to public in fall this year. […]
Bank Innovation
Berlin-based challenger bank N26 will be opening its services to users in the United States and the United Kingdom by the end of this year, founder and chief executive officer Valentin Stalf told Reuters today. The bank, which was officially launched in 2015, currently has a #German banking license, allowing it to operate in other […]
Bank Innovation
EXCLUSIVE – #German #online #lender #Kreditech is making its way to #India, Bank Innovation has learned. For this expedition, the #fintech has teamed up with SaaS banking platform Mambu for providing short-term lending products specifically tailored to local consumers. Kreditech’s entry into the Indian market comes because of payment processor PayU’s involvement in the company […]
Bank Innovation
Berlin-based savings #deposit marketplace #Raisin has received capital from payments company #PayPal, which will be used to push the #fintech’s growth in the market. The amount of funding, described as a “strategic investment” by PayPal, remains undisclosed. However, the backing by PayPal joins a €30 million ($ 35 million) round the fintech raised earlier this year […]
Bank Innovation
#Blockchain, artificial intelligence (AI), machine learning and Big Data will transform #capital #markets, according to #German #stock #market #operator Deutsche Boerse. It urges established financial infrastructure players to start approaching #fintech firms and consider partnering with these innovative ventures.
In a new report entitled ‘Future of Fintech in Capital Markets,’ Deutsche Boerse, in collaboration with fintech research and advisory firm Celent, analyzes the potential impact of fintech on market infrastructure incumbents and highlights the opportunity for providers in partnering with these new innovative ventures.
According to David Easthope, senior vice president and responsible for the securities and investments practice of Celent, pioneering fintech firms are transforming major parts of the financial services ecosystem. He urges incumbents and fintech firms to start pursuing a collaborative approach, arguing that fintech will mostly likely shape the future of capital provision, #technology, and other industry workflows.
In 2015, about US$ 19 billion in capital was invested globally in fintech across approximately 1,200 deals, highlighting the general appetite for financial services disruptors.
The report points out five capital market fintech clusters and technologies:
Blockchain technology and distributed ledgers have the potential to substantially change the nature of issuance, and potentially enhance exchanges&8217; role in price discovery, access liquidity, reduce frictional costs and offer a path to a more efficient core market infrastructure.
Post-trade digitalization: firms are looking into Big Data, AI and advanced analytics to process and create compliance and regulatory reporting. Regulatory technology (regtech) is an opportunity for incumbents to improve their operational efficiency, reduce systemic risk, and provide additional revenue-generating opportunities.
Machine learning, predictive analytics and Big Data technologies, will impact capital markets by providing tools to mine data across the value chain. New methods of data delivery and tools for insight and prediction will allow firms to make better decisions around allocation and risk, and investors to gain access to next-gen index products, ETFs, as well as other innovative trading and investment products.
Investment technologies, including automated investment management tools or #robo-advisors, are gaining relevance as the industry continues to shift towards automation in asset allocation and rebalancing. On the retail side, customers are shifting to cloud-based digital solutions that are accessible in terms of pricing as well as usability.
Alternative funding platforms and peer-to-peer business models are reshaping traditional channels for equity and debt capital formation, opening up new networks for accessing capital. Financial market organizations can capitalize on this trend and provide new solutions to the financing and funding market.
As trends in digitalization accelerate, established technology firms and market operators will need to collaborate with new business models and innovative technologies.
“Market participants need to continually evolve and innovate their business models,” the report says.
&8220;The financial market infrastructure provider of tomorrow will have leveraged its leadership in regulation, market structure, trading, clearing, and settlement to guide startup fintech firms in the journey towards creating an effective and safe capital market for the twenty-first century and beyond.&8221;
The report was released simultaneously with the announcement of Deutsche Boerse Group&8217;s new corporate venture capital platform, DB1 Ventures. The team, based primarily in Frankfurt, said it will invest in early to growth stage fintech firms and manage the group&8217;s existing portfolio of investments.
According to Carsten Kengeter, CEO of Deutsche Boerse, the idea behind DBI Ventures is to allow the group to continue on being an active investor in the space. DBI Ventures will primarily focus on ventures and products that &8220;are core or adjacent to our client, product, geographic and technology strategy,&8221; according to Kengeter.
Committed to keeping up with emerging fintech trends, Deutsche Boerse has been involved in the space via various means. In April 2016, the group launched its Fintech Hub in Frankfurt, an initiative aimed at acting as a cluster for German financial innovation.
Deutsche Boerse is also an investor in Digital Asset Holdings, a developer of distributed ledger technology for the financial services industry. In November 2015, it invested in Illuminate&8217;s IFM Fintech Opportunities Fund, which focuses on areas such as compliance, regulation and connectivity.
In July 2015, Deutsche Boerse acquired forex trading digital platform 360T for 725 million euros.
Featured image: Deutsche Boerse by Jochen Zick, Action Press, via Flickr.
The post German Stock Market Operator Releases Paper On How Fintech Will Reshape Capital Markets appeared first on Fintech Schweiz Digital Finance News – FintechNewsCH.
Founded in 2007 by Peter Niederhauser and Dr. Michael Sidler, Redalpine Venture Partners is a #Swiss early-stage venture capital firm focusing on European life science and information and communications #technology startups.
Active in the #fintech sector – an area it believes has a lot of potential -, Redalpine has signed key deals with the likes of Swiss digital insurance manager Knip, Berliln based digital bank Number26, and digital investment intermediary Cashboard, but also bexio and Givve.
Dr. Harald Nieder, Partner at Redalpine Venture Partners. Image via LinkedIn
Speaking to Fintechnews, Redalpine partner Dr. Harald Nieder, said that fintech and insurtech are two areas that still have a number of promising business models and technologies that are maturing. Naming the likes of #blockchain technology, risk-tech, artificial intelligence and capital markets innovations, among other sub-segments, However, in some other subsectors, Niederexpects consolidation.
Throughout the years, Nieder has witnessed the industry evolving, pointing out that while during the first era, fintech ventures were essentially aimed at “un-bundling” financial services &8211; citing for instance TransferWise in cross-border payments, and Zopa for peer-to-peer lending &8211;, today, a new trend is emerging as a number of players and niche products are maturing.
He calls this the &8220;re-bundling&8221; where the likes of Number26 and Cashboard act as new financial hubs and marketplaces for products offered by fellow fintech innovators.
Launched in January 2015, Number26 is a Berlin-based fintech company that wants to revolutionize the banking experience. Essentially, Number26 provides a mobile app that lets users manage their finances on-the-go and allows them to open an account in just eight minutes.
Similarly to its Vietnamese counterpart Timo or the American Simple, Number26 is not a bank of its own and it is its banking partner &8211; in the case of Number26, Wirecard Bank &8211;, that holds both customers’ money and the banking license.
Number26, which has recently received support from one of Asia&8217;s richest men to fuel its growth, says it wants to act as a fintech hub and integrate other financial products into its apps, including credit, saving and insurance products.
Redalpine, which participated in Number26&8217;s seed funding round in 2014, believes that there is high market potential for the product as it is aligned with the preferred user experience of the digitally native generation.
Cashboard on the other hand, is a #robo-advisor that uses algorithms to create diversified portfolios made up of a wide range of assets, including exchange-traded funds, money market funds, bonds, social trading, private loans and equity #investments in private companies.
Cashboard via introduction video: https://youtu.be/u9RZEXBmGoY
Cashboard, one of the BBVA&8217;s Open Talent 2014 fintech competition finalists, allows people to start investing with as little as €100 and does not charge into fixed fees. Cashboard earns commissions from their product partners and clients pay an annual 10% performance fee on net profits past a high-water mark.
Cashboard has a &8220;far more compelling business model than the traditional ETF-based robo-advisors,&8221; Nieder said, explaining what made his company invest in the startup in 2015. It has a &8220;unique positioning in the otherwise very competitive robo-advisory and online investing markets,&8221; he added.
Redalpine is also invested in bexio, a Swiss Provider of business-accounting software with strong FinTech angle and e-banking integration. Recently Bexio announced a partnership and integration with UBS E-Banking.
Another sub-segment which Redalpine is particularly interested in is insurtech, where the firm &8220;[sees] and [expects] lots of action in the startup space.&8221;
When Redalpine signed a deal with Swiss digital insurance manager app Knip in 2014, the firm became one of the first VCs to invest in that space, Nieder said.
Insurance is ripe for innovation across the entire value chain; and yet, the insurtech industry is still lagging behind.
&8220;Insurance didn’t have the crisis we saw in the financial sector to jumpstart disruption and a lot of areas in insurance require startups to have in-depth insurance knowledge,&8221; Nieder said.
&8220;We expect a lot more disruption in the insurance space, as knowledge transfer to startups continues. We also see this driven in large part out of Europe, where again, we have a co-existence of insurance know-how and start-up ecosystem.&8221;
When asked about his views on the fintech sector in Europe, and most particularly in Switzerland, Nieder argues that there are a lot of untapped opportunities.
Somewhat overshadowed by its neighbor the UK, and especially London, Switzerland could do much better in the field given its financial expertise and improving startup culture. This echoes previous comments that have been made by other industry observers who argue that Switzerland is lacking, in part, governmental support.
That said, Nieder remains optimistic in the future of the European fintech scene as he believes that the location provides &8220;the most fertile breeding ground for fintech startups.&8221;
Featured image by ra2studio, via Shutterstock.com.
The post Redalpine&8217;s Swiss And German Fintech Investments appeared first on Fintech Schweiz Digital Finance News – FintechNewsCH.
#Fintech could potentially #jeopardize around a #third of all #German #banks #revenues over the next few years, according to #McKinsey and Company.
In a new report, McKinsey explores how fintech is transforming Germany’s financial sector, offering new opportunities for both entrepreneurs and banks.
“All the indications are that these #FinTechs will also gain an even stronger foothold on the German market over the next years. Customers are open to change as never before,” the report #says.
&8220;By 2020 almost half of all German bank customers will have opened a digital bank account. The share of mobile banking is increasing rapidly. FinTechs are strong in these areas. In the mid-term they can challenge but also partner with banks.&8221;
Successful fintech companies have a few things in common. Firstly, they are lean, agile and innovative. They require fewer but highly specialized staff, and hardly any physical infrastructure. Secondly, they focus on individual segments of the value chain and can often substantially undercut the fees charged by incumbents.
Two examples are Auxmoney, the startup that runs one of the largest marketplace lending platforms in Germany with over a million registered users. The company leverages Big Data for better credit scoring.
Another example is Number26, the startup behind Germany&8217;s the first digital bank that lets customers manage their finances from a smartphone. Users can open an account in just eight minutes thanks to real-time identification provided by IDnow.
The report points out that fintech companies have so far primarily targeted private customers, leaving German corporate customers as a substantial untapped opportunity.
&8220;The key reasons for the focus on private customers are the low barriers to entry and that less expert know-how is required for founding a fintech,&8221; it says.
&8220;Solutions for corporate customers are harder to realize. In the corporate arena it is not enough to be cheaper, more convenient and more user friendly. Fintechs also have to also be familiar with many nuances, invest more time in rather complex products, and build up specialist know-how for marketing them.&8221;
The report suggests that in Germany at the end of 2015, there were over 200 reasonably sizable fintechs, some sponsored by domestic incubators such as FinLab and FinLeap.
For banks, the growing competition with fintech companies represents a challenge which could potentially cost them between 29% to 35% of their revenues.
That said, if banks undertake digital transformation of their value chain, they could increase their returns.
&8220;The prime requirement is to keep an eagle eye on key pioneering developments,&8221; the report advises. &8220;Proactive market surveillance is essential.&8221;
It concludes:
&8220;The market is in constant upheaval – this applies to FinTechs and banks alike. Each player should investigate new technical opportunities and build its strategy on its own strengths. Customers in Germany are open to change as never before. Companies that have a compelling customer proposition with transparent products and superior service will continue to succeed in the future.&8221;
Get McKinsey and Company&8217;s full ‘Fintech – Challenges and Opportunities: How digitalization is transforming the financial sector&8217; report: http://www.mckinsey.com/industries/financial-services/our-insights/fintech-challenges-and-opportunities
Featured image by NicoElNino via Shutterstock.com.
The post Fintechs Likely to Jeopardize One Third of German Banks Revenues, Says McKinsey appeared first on Fintech Schweiz Digital Finance News – FintechNewsCH.
TechCrunch understands from a source close to the transaction that #FinLeap’s latest round gives the #company a post-money #valuation of €121 million (based on a €100 million pre-money valuation). Read More
Something is happening in #Germany.
The local #Fintech industry is up-and-coming – objectively so. While for some time, the domestic Fintech scene was not commonly known for its breathtaking speed of innovation, things are changing rapidly.
Only within the last few months, a significant uptake in activity within the #German Fintech industry is visible:
What is more, German financial institutions themselves are at the forefront of this new Fintech momentum. Some examples how they are spearheading the current movement:
Supported is all of this by an evolving national Fintech ecosystem which is now coming together:
Taking it all together – in 2016, the ground seems to be prepared for German Fintech to finally take off.
Reason enough for McKinsey & Company to publish the first major analysis on #Fintech in Germany:
In this whitepaper we analyze the magnitude and some underlying drivers of the Fintech phenomenon in Germany. The recent momentum should not come as a surprise. Germany is an attractive banking market to tackle. More than 80 million people, a vigorous SME segment (‘Mittelstand’) and world-class corporates have a need for modern banking services. In the corporate banking segment there is still ample opportunity for new disruptive solutions.
A lot of further potential remains for both Fintech companies and banks if they successfully adapt to this new paradigm.
[linkedinbadge URL=”https://www.linkedin.com/in/danieldrummer” connections=”off” mode=”icon” liname=”Daniel Drummer“] is Management Consultant at McKinsey & Company and this article was originally published on linkedin.
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