Raisin, the pan-European fintech marketplace for savings and investment products, is disclosing that it has raised $114 million in Series D funding. Existing investors Index Ventures, PayPal, Ribbit Capital and Thrive Capital all participated in the round, which brings the total raised to date to $200 million.
Tellingly, the fast-growing Berlin fintech says it plans to use the new capital for “strategic acquisitions” and further internationalisation. Although available to customers across the EU from the get-go, Raisin had dedicated market launches in the Netherlands and the U.K. last year, seeing the company expand beyond Germany. It plans to add at least two additional international markets this year.
Originally founded in 2013, Raisin set out to open up the savings deposit market in Europe by taking advantage of EU-wide banking regulation, which goes someway to creating a financial services single market. Specifically, the problem the startup solves is that saving deposit rates differ not only from one local bank offer to another but more noticeably across Europe as a whole.
The Raisin marketplace lets you shop around and compare different rates European-wide. However, the key difference to a comparison site is that, via its own bank partner, the company offers consumers a single interface that includes account opening and anti-money laundering checks, making it easy to switch and continually ensure you get a competitive interest rate.
For the banks that integrate with the Raisin marketplace, especially smaller and midsize banks, they get exposure to customers across Europe that might otherwise never be reached. It also gives them potential access to many more deposits, which helps with their own balance sheet lending and scale.
To that end, Raisin says that it has brokered more than $11 billion in deposits for its 62 partner banks. It claims more than 160,000 customers from 31 different European countries, and says that to date Raisin has helped savers earn $90 million in interest.
Meanwhile, Raisin says the new “infusion” of capital will enable the fintech to strengthen its position as the preeminent online platform that gives Europeans access to the “single financial market” for savings.
Comments Raisin CEO and co-founder Dr. Tamaz Georgadze: “We want to break through unnecessary barriers to profitable saving and share the benefits of open markets – with both consumers and banks. Our central aim is to give savers and financial institutions the ‘Schengen experience’ for banking. Our first five years demonstrate that, indeed, Raisin stands for the saving and investing of the future”.
Source: Tech Crunch Startups | Raisin raises 4M for its pan-European marketplace for savings and investment products
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