Why Solarisbank Is Losing its Next Major Customer Grover

With the start-up Grover, the Berlin fintech bank Solaris is losing its second well-known partner within a few weeks. Is there more to it?

The Berlin fintech bank Solaris is losing its next important partner, Grover. As the technology rental portal announced in an email to customers, the “Grover Card” payment card is no longer offered. It rewarded customers with cashback credit for every purchase that could be used to rent new technology products, such as a smartphone or a games console. The Visa debit cards were issued by Solarisbank. Unlike Grover, she has a banking license.

According to company circles, fewer than 5,000 Grover customers used the card through a Solaris account – so the financial loss should be bearable for the fintech bank. Nevertheless, Grover was an important partner for Solaris: the startup is considered a unicorn, meaning it is valued by investors at more than a billion dollars. The Berlin startup’s brand is also known to many people through television advertising. This also gave Solarisbank a certain shine.

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Grover has to save money

When asked, Grover did not comment on the exact background to the end of his card offer. The email to customers simply states that the company wants to focus more on its core business – the rental of technical products. According to insiders, the card offer has not yet paid off for the startup. The numbers were simply too small.

The fintech bank Solaris will in future manage the credit cards of more than a million automobile club customers. Until recently, financial circles speculated that the cooperation would fail, which would have dealt Solaris the next low blow

According to information from Finance Forward, Grover is currently under high pressure to save money. On an annual basis, the startup achieved recurring revenue of more than 220 million euros in 2022, but the business is not yet expected to generate stable profits. However, investors have demanded this, according to company circles.

The fact that profitability has not yet been achieved is said to be one of the reasons why Grover founder Michael Cassau resigned as managing director last November. The company is now apparently hoping that stopping the card offering will result in further cost reductions.

Solarisbank is likely to be primarily annoyed by this. Not only does teh company lose a well-known partner in Grover. It is also the second in just a few weeks. At the beginning of February, it was announced that the neobank Vivid was withdrawing half a million customer accounts from Solaris. Cost reasons are also said to have been decisive for this.

Solarisbank is increasingly trying to break away from the fast-moving fintech business and is increasingly focusing on large customers outside the tech scene – most recently with success: the bank recently gained an important partner in ADAC.

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(Featured image by Nicst via Pixabay)

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First published in Capital. A third-party contributor translated and adapted the article from the original. In case of discrepancy, the original will prevail.

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