The FinTech & PropTech Weekly Round-Up: Week 3

Vermietet takes a Bit(stone) of capital, Blackprint backs its favourites, and GoCardless goes global. Plus a couple other bits and pieces.

Blackprint backs its favourites

I made the short trip up to Frankfurt to sit in on this one, and catch up with a few of the teams the night before. Blackprint found a compelling bunch this time round, with my personal favourites being Proptiq (now out of stealth) and Sorbet. Of this year’s finalists, Corefihub and Proptiq made the grade, with two other teams still yet to be announced (stay tuned).

Our verdict: We may be a little biased (as a previous batch company of Blackprint), but we know the teams are in for a great five months. Enjoy!

Companies: Assetti, Bailsman, Corefihub, DocEstate, Inzept3D, Proptiq, SmartVent, Sorbet and Tunnelware

Source: For once, me!

GoCardless goes global

One of London’s original FinTech companies, GoCardless, has raised $75m in new funding. With backing from an impressive stable of investors, the Series E will be spent on a seemingly global expansion across EMEA, APAC and the US. GoCardless was founded by an impressive team, with those no longer at the company going on to found further notable start-ups, Monzo and Nested.

Our verdict: Great, simple API product. Google’s participation is also quite interesting, following their CurrencyCloud investment in 2017.

Investors: Accel Partners, Adams Street Partners, Balderton Capital, Google Ventures, Notion Capital and Passion Capital

Source: Steve O’Hear, TechCrunch

Vermietet takes a Bit(stone) of capital

Along with Allthings and Home.ht, Vermietet, is one of Germany’s PropTech rising stars. This week they announced a fresh injection of capital from BitStone, a VC with notable PropTech / Real Estate industry links. The funding (the exact amount is a little hush hush), will help to further build out Vermietet’s existing platform.

Our verdict: A great platform that has shown impressive growth in the short-term. I’m interested to see what else the team has planned for the platform.

Investors: BitStone Capital, along with some follow-on investment

Source: Lennard Behrens, Onvista

Bynk may just become a Bank

Another great FinTech from Sweden, Bynk announced a pretty decent €48m (valuing the company €190m) investment from Schibsted and LMK Industri. The company offers a mobile loan app, with users able to borrow up to €28,000. From what I can make out, Bynk isn’t quite yet a bank, but with this capital injection it may just begin the long process to become one.

Our verdict: If Bynk is thinking of becoming a bank, I believe it has done things the right way, lending first and thinking about deposits second.

Investors: Schibsted and LMK Industri

Source: Mary Loritz, EU-Startups

Mambu takes root

German-based Mambu is one of a few tech-heavy companies that power the underlying banking infrastructure required by a number of FinTech companies, their customers include N26, Kreditech and Nubi. Having raised €30m, the funding will help to improve an already impressive set up KPIs, as they targeting growing their team by 300% and revenues by 600%.

Our verdict: The underlying utilities powering this wave of FinTechs are hot right now. Personally, I’m interested to see who comes out on top.

Investors: Acton Capital, Bessemer Venture Partners, CommerzVentures, Point Nine Capital and Runa Capital

Source: Another one from Mary Loritz, EU-Startups

Yes, we even have an epilogue

As you might have guessed, this article is somewhat of a plug for us and our startup, mietwise. Even so, we are two founders going through the (sometimes testing) steps of founding and running a new PropTech / FinTech company in Germany. As such, we intend to share our experiences and knowledge in the hope that we can help others do the same.

Don’t forget to take a look at mietwise, and if you ever want to get in touch, we love good coffee!

The Mietwise Team,

Jonathan