Solaris (credit institution)

Solaris SE (until November 2022 as Solarisbank AG[3]) is a credit institution licensed in Germany, with headquarters in Berlin and branches in London, Paris, Milan, Madrid and Vilnius.[4]

Solaris SE
TypeSocietas Europaea
Industry
FoundedMarch 2016 (2016-03)
Founder
Headquarters
Berlin
,
Germany
Area served
Europe
Key people
  • Carsten Höltkemeyer (CEO)
  • Chloé Mayenobe (COO)
  • Jörg Diewald (CCO)
  • Ansgar Finken (CRO)
  • Lee Johnstone (CFO)
  • Joerg Howein (CPO)
ServicesBanking-as-a-Service,

KYC, Cards, Digital Asset,

Lending
Revenue$130.900.000 (2022)
Number of employees
900+
Websitehttps://solarisgroup.com/

The company's business is the operation of digital banking (bank accounts, debit and credit cards, consumer loans, e.g. buy-now-pay-later) and other financial services (e-money, payment transactions), as well as the custody and trading of cryptocurrencies in the B2B sector.

Background

Overview

Solaris SE was established in 2015 as a part of Finleap,[5] a fintech company builder based in Berlin, Germany, with Andreas Bittner and Marko Wenthin[6] as its founders.[7] Solaris was officially launched in March 2016, after receiving its banking license.[1][8]

In October 2016, the company entered into a strategic partnership with MasterCard in order to develop novel banking modules.[1][9]

In February 2017, Solaris raised €26.3 million in its series A funding round from Yabeo Capital, Arvato Financial Solutions, Finleap, Unicredit and the Japan-based SBI group.[10] The company also brought in Dr. Roland Folz as CEO.[2]

In March 2017, Solaris is said to have brought over 20 companies onto its banking platform[2] and it is reported to have passported its banking license to six European countries.[11]

In March 2018, Solaris raised $70 million in Series B funding from Arvato Financial Solutions, SBI Group, BBVA, Visa, Lakestar and ABN AMRO's Digital Impact Fund.[12]

In June 2020, Solaris raised €60 million in Series C funding led by HV Holtzbrinck Ventures with participation from Vulcan Capital, Samsung Catalyst Fund and Storm Ventures.[13]

Technology

Solaris provides a banking platform,[14] which is said to allow its users, mostly digital companies and financial services startups, to access various banking service modules, which then can be integrated into their processes, websites or mobile applications.[10][15]

Special audit

In January 2022, the Federal Financial Supervisory Authority (BaFin) of Germany ordered a special audit because of organizational deficiencies identified during a bank supervisory audit from 2020.[16] The independent external auditors are supposed to verify whether Solaris has implemented the respective measures which were agreed with BaFin as a result of the Art. 44 KWG standard audit. Folz publicly welcomed this action, claiming that the company held no secrets.[17]

Awards and recognition

Solaris SE was one of the finalists for the "Most Disruptive Innovation" Award at the 2016 Global Banking Awards, held in Spain.[18]

References
  1. Dolan, Shelagh. "The top banking-as-a-service platform providers & banks using BaaS technology". Business Insider. Retrieved 26 June 2020.
  2. "SolarisBank raises $28 million to expand its European fintech platform". VentureBeat. Retrieved 18 November 2017.
  3. "Finanz-Start-up: Aus Solarisbank wird Solaris: Berliner Fintech benennt sich um". www.handelsblatt.com (in German). Retrieved 31 July 2023.
  4. Dohms, Heinz-Roger (13 November 2020). "Fintech: Solarisbank bereitet offenbar die große Europa-Expansion ein". Finanz-Szene.de (in German). Retrieved 31 July 2023.
  5. Ninon Renaud (13 May 2016). "La banque en kit prend corps avec solarisBank". Les Echos.fr (in French). Retrieved 4 September 2022.
    - O'Hear, Steve (13 June 2016). "German fintech company builder FinLeap raises €21M at €121M valuation". TechCrunch. Retrieved 18 November 2017.
  6. Caspar Tobias Schlenk (21 November 2016). ""Es tut extrem weh, zu guten Geschäften Nein zu sagen"". Gründerszene (in German). Retrieved 4 September 2022.
  7. "SolarisBank, a bank for digital and fintech startups, gets banking license". Finextra Research. 14 March 2016. Retrieved 18 November 2017.
  8. O'Hear, Steve (14 March 2016). "FinLeap's solarisBank to offer Banking-as-a-Platform so startups can ride fintech gravy train". TechCrunch. Retrieved 4 September 2022.
  9. Antony Peyton (11 October 2016). "MasterCard and SolarisBank partner for digital banking push". Banking Technology. Retrieved 4 September 2022.
    - "SolarisBank partners MasterCard to develop new banking modules". The Paypers. 12 October 2016. Retrieved 4 September 2022.
  10. "German Fintech Partners with Japan". finews.asia. 14 March 2017. Retrieved 4 September 2022.
  11. "solarisBank Raises €26.3M in Series A Financing". FinSMEs. 15 March 2017. Retrieved 18 November 2017.
  12. Steve O'Hear (8 March 2018). "Banking platform solarisBank closes €56.6M Series B from BBVA, Visa, Lakestar, and others". TechCrunch. Retrieved 4 September 2022.
  13. "solarisBank, Europe's leading Banking-as-a-Service platform, raises EUR 60 million in series C round to further accelerate growth" (Press release). Solarisbank. 30 June 2020. Retrieved 4 September 2022.
  14. "Solarisbank raises $28 million with sights set on Asian market". Business Insider. Retrieved 18 November 2017.
  15. Mike Dautner (21 March 2016). "SolarisBank Receives Banking License". Payment Week. Retrieved 4 September 2022.
  16. "Solaris may only accept new customers with BaFin's permission". thepaypers.com. Retrieved 22 September 2023.
  17. Dennis Schwarz; Felix Holtermann (28 January 2022). "Solarisbank wächst rasant, BaFin schickt Sonderprüfer". Handelsblatt (in German). Retrieved 4 September 2022.
    - "BaFin sorgt sich um Solaris Bank und schickt Sonderprüfer". Business Insider (in German). 29 January 2022. Retrieved 4 September 2022.
  18. Lindsay James (27 October 2016). "The winners of the 2016 Global Banking Awards are announced". Technology Record. Retrieved 4 September 2022.


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