The German Fintech Sector Saw a Turbulent Year in 2024

Due to high interest rates and geopolitical uncertainties, investors were more cautious again in the first half of 2024. Nevertheless, there were several financing rounds of German fintech companies with large sums as well as some sales between January and June. An overview of the financing rounds, exits and bankruptcies so far in 2024, in teh German fintech sector.

The first half of 2024 was not an easy one for the German fintech sector

Global fintech financing fell to $51.9 billion. In the second half of 2024, it was still at $62.3 billion. According to management consultancy KPMG, the reason for investors’ reluctance is high interest rates and geopolitical uncertainty. In the Europe, Middle East and Africa region in particular, investments plummeted from $19.1 billion to $11.4 billion.

Nevertheless, there was reason to celebrate for some German fintech companies in the first half of the year. In total, we identified 28 financing rounds between January and June 2024. With 1.5 billion euros, SumUp received the highest funding amount in May 2024 from a number of well-known investors, including Goldman Sachs, Deutsche Bank and Blackrock. The POS system provider wants to use the money to refinance existing debts and grow globally.

German fintech sector: Iwoca, Solaris and Pliant also received large sum

Iwoca received 175 million euros from Citibank and Insight Investments to finance loans for German small and medium-sized companies. For its British business, the credit fintech received a further 140 million euros from Barclays and Värde Partners. Solaris received 96 million euros in March and an additional financial guarantee of 100 million euros. The funds are intended to secure the ADAC credit card program.

The credit card platform Pliant even received money twice: 33 million euros in January and a loan of 100 million euros, and a further 18 million euros were added in April.

But it wasn’t just fintech companies in the growth phase that investors were targeting. In the first half of the year, there were also a number of early-stage investments: ten of the financing rounds were pre-seed or seed financing. Cloover secured a particularly large sum. In a seed round, the start-up, which offers financing solutions for the expansion of renewable energies, received 114 million US dollars.

Among the exits, the sale of Creditshelf to Swiss competitor Teylor in April attracted particular attention. According to the company, the takeover made Teylor the market leader for loans for small and medium-sized companies. The sale saved Creditshelf, which had entered into protective shield proceedings in February after refinancing difficulties.

The payment service provider Jitpay was also insolvent when Volksbank Brawo took over 100 percent of the shares. Pile Capital, on the other hand, was sold to Vivid just two years after it was founded.

The first half of the year in the German fintech sector also saw the bankruptcies of ExpressSteuer, Dock Financial and Mobyfin, the renamed fintech subsidiary of Auto 1. In July, Clink and Brygge also went bankrupt.

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(Featured image by Scott Graham via Unsplash)

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