Regardless of a decline in funding, Germany’s fintech sector demonstrated resilience and innovation in 2024, pushed by developments in synthetic intelligence (AI), embedded finance, and strategic trade partnerships, in accordance to a brand new report by Contextual Options, a Berlin-based technique, enlargement and product consultancy.
In 2024, partnerships between banks and fintech startups flourished, specializing in embedded finance, cryptocurrency, and credit score companies.
Banking big Deutsche Financial institution performed a pivotal position on this development, saying a flurry of collaborations. In August, the financial institution teamed up with Upvest to supply the Berlin-headquartered fintech startup with entry to its banking infrastructure. The brand new partnership will allow Upvest to ship digital IBANs, end-user money administration options, automated fee processing, and international trade companies by Deutsche Financial institution.
Based in 2017, Upvest offers custody, buying and selling, and settlement infrastructure, enabling monetary companies companies to supply various funding merchandise.
In June, Deutsche Financial institution expanded its current partnership with Bitpanda, offering the Austrian cryptocurrency unicorn with entry to German IBANs, and streamlining the expertise for customers.
Bitpanda is a regulated multi-asset dealer platform providing greater than 2,800 chosen digital belongings and indices in addition to shares, exchange-traded funds (ETFs) and commodities to retail traders.
The startup has considerably expanded its foothold within the German market, inking final yr a collaboration with Landesbank Baden-Wurttemberg (LBBW), the most important federal financial institution in Germany, to combine its “Funding-as-a-Service” (IaaS) infrastructure and supply company purchasers with crypto custody and procurement companies. LBBW counts amongst its prospects the likes of SAP and Siemens.
Commerzbank is one other German financial institution that introduced important partnerships in 2024, unveiling in June a collaboration with Berlin-based bank card platform Pliant to reinforce its enterprise bank card choices. This partnership goals to allow enterprise prospects to handle their card portfolios extra effectively, problem new playing cards, and set utilization restrictions with larger ease.
Extra lately, Swiss financial institution Hypothekarbank Lenzburg acquired a 9.9% minority stake in Sutor Financial institution, a Hamburg-based non-public financial institution. Each banks are actively concerned within the banking-as-a-service (BaaS) world and mentioned in January 2025 that they are going to be rising their BaaS choices by this collaboration.
Hypothekarbank Lenzburg is a well known participant in its native BaaS market, having inked partnerships with retail big Coop and challenger financial institution Neon. In the meantime, Sutor Financial institution, although not as well known, has partnered with a number of fintech firms over the previous years, together with Raisin, Fintiba, and Timefonds.
These new partnerships are being pushed by the rise of embedded finance. In Germany, various funds are gaining traction, with 26% of customers utilizing purchase now, pay later (BNPL) preparations in 2023, in accordance to a 2024 Adyen examine.
In business-to-business (B2B), embedded lending can be rising, significantly amongst small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) that face difficulties securing conventional financing. Fintech firms like Banxware are addressing these points by offering loans to SMEs by platforms like Lieferando, Germany’s largest meals supply service.
One standout performer in Germany’s embedded finance sector is company bank card specialist Pliant, which has achieved one of many strongest growths in recent times. In accordance to the Sifted 50: Germany Leaderboard, Pliant recorded a 133.5% two-year compound annual progress fee (CAGR).
The determine ranks Pliant third within the German fintech panorama by way of two-year income CAGR, behind Finanzguru (168.67%) and Circula (140.48%). Finanzguru is an open banking-enabled AI-powered monetary advisor that claims greater than 1.5 million registered customers, whereas Circula is an expense administration answer for SMEs that serves greater than 2,000 prospects.
AI was one other key theme in fintech all through 2024, with important developments shaping the trade.
In November 2024, Deutsche Financial institution’s company enterprise capital (CVC) group invested in German AI firm Aleph Alpha, which researches, develops and implements transformative AI reminiscent of giant AI language and multimodal fashions.
Deutsche Financial institution can be taking part in a pilot undertaking by Creance.ai, a three way partnership between PwC Germany and Aleph Alpha, which goals to discover how revolutionary generative AI (genAI) can assist handle complicated compliance necessities extra effectively.
In January 2025, Frankfurt-based non-public financial institution B. Metzler seel. Sohn & Co. AG (Metzler) introduced a partnership with Distinctive, a Swiss award-winning firm specializing in AI-driven options for monetary companies. This partnership permits Metzler to combine Distinctive’s AI options into their operations, enhancing their decision-making processes, shopper engagement, and general operational effectivity.
The newly launched platform MetzlerGPT makes use of superior giant language fashions and different AI applied sciences to supply complete data-driven insights to all 800 Metzler staff, streamline shopper work, and automate routine duties.
That very same month, Tapline, a German AI credit score fintech platform, secured EUR 20 million in a pre-Sequence A funding spherical to speed up its progress. Tapline’s platform leverage AI-driven credit score expertise to supply versatile funding options to companies, serving purchasers in Germany, Estonia, the Czech Republic, and Poland, with additional enlargement plans on the horizon.
Most lately, German financial institution Sparkasse Suedwestpfalz deployed KeBob, an AI-powered safety and fraud prevention system developed by KEBA. KeBob enhances safety in financial institution foyers, detecting potential threats like vandalism, ATM assaults, unauthorized habits, and medical emergencies whereas additionally stopping PIN theft and regulating after-hours entry.
Development and innovation within the German fintech sector final yr continued regardless of a continued decline in fintech funding. In accordance to CB Insights, fintech funding in Germany totaled EUR 620 million throughout 69 transactions in 2024, marking the bottom stage since no less than 2020.
The sum represents a 11% year-over-year (YoY) decline from EUR 700 million in 2023, whereas the variety of transactions fell by 22.5% YoY from 89 transactions.
The YoY decline was pushed by a shortage of huge funding rounds. In 2024, Germany’s largest fintech enterprise capital (VC) rounds included Upvest’s US$105 million Sequence C, Solaris’ US$104 million Sequence F, and Component’s US$54 million Sequence C.
Featured picture credit score: edited from freepik
