German's solarisBank said it raised 26.3 million euros including from a new Japanese investor to expand its business in Asia, led by a new Chief Executive poached from Deutsche Bank.
Berlin-based solarisBank started operating as a licensed bank just one year ago. Now, it is living the fintech dream: is has clinched a partnership with MasterCard and won 20 firms as clients for its platform.
The entirely digital bank said on Tuesday is has collected 26.3 million euros in financing from Japan's SBI Group and Arvato, a subsidiary of German publisher Bertelsmann, as well as from existing investors.
solarisBank plans to push into Asia and expand in Europe, establishing joint venture companies with SBI, a web-based financial provider.
Asia Push
«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,» SBI head Yoshitaka Kitao said in a statement.
solarisBank said it is hiring Roland Folz, formerly a finance executive with Deutsche Bank in Frankfurt, as its Chief Executive, and appointing Gerrit Seidel, who formerly ran online money transfer firm Sofort Bank.
The fintech firm offers digital banking for other firms, building the services into their customers' existing processes, websites and apps. It has «passported» its German banking license into six countries in Europe in order to expand its services.
