Deutsche Börse acquires stake in figo

DB1 Ventures, the Corporate Venture Capital arm of Deutsche Börse Group, has participated in a Series B financing round for the Hamburg-based FinTech company figo GmbH and is investing a seven-digit amount for a significant minority stake. Further investors are reputable business angels from Germany. figo raised €6.8 million in total in the current financing round.

figo is a banking service provider focused on building the banking infrastructure of the future. In addition to the Banking API, the company offers clients and partners various products and services within the context of the amended Payment Services Directive 2 (PSD2).

“The figo team led by André Bajorat has made clear the opportunities that exist for virtually every player in the financial sector and the enormous potential that PSD2 implementation offers to European industry,” said Ankur Kamalia, MD & Head of Venture Portfolio Management and DB1 Ventures, Deutsche Börse, of the investment. “In a changing financial landscape, figo has established itself as a reliable partner and has built up a fantastic FinTech ecosystem around itself. We look forward to supporting their growth and also learning from the innovation they are driving.”

“Deutsche Börse represents a perfect partner for figo – a financially involved investor that is at the same time a strategic partner. No other player of this type in the financial services sector stands for neutrality and is at the same time an infrastructure provider. With Deutsche Börse as a partner, figo will gain new enhanced visibility in the industry,” said André M. Bajorat, CEO of figo GmbH, to the new investors. “With the funds from the Series B financing round, we will push ahead with the internationalization of the company and further expand our products around PSD2 and other regulatory requirements.”

“We have been watching figo for several years now. It is a great confirmation for us to see how a company can develop when the right people come together with a common vision at the right time. The figo team has shown how successful you can be with the right mindset,” said Dr. Marc Umber, investment manager at the High-Tech Gründerfonds.

Press contacts:
Deutsche Börse Group: Heiner Seidel, Tel.: +49 69 2 11-177 64, heiner.seidel@deutsche-boerse.com
figo GmbH: Stella Regna, Tel.: +49 160 640 41 41, sr@figo.io

About figo GmbH
figo is Europe’s first banking service provider and offers third parties innovative services with banking functions. By integrating the figo Banking API, they can quickly link their applications, products and services to more than 3,100 financial sources. This interface is the key to a multi-banking financial platform which guarantees users a comfortable and, above all, secure handling of banking data. With the “Banking as a Service” platform, figo is bridging the gap between the modern services of its customers and more than 55 million online banking accounts in Germany and Austria. In addition to FinTechs, banks and large companies are already using the solution to integrate banking into user-friendly contexts. figo’s positioning is pioneering in the context of PSD2 and the related topic of XS2A.

figo has developed a dynamic FinTech ecosystem and has generated a new standard for linking financial data. In this, figo has succeeded in reducing complexity, integrating banking services into third-party products, and providing new touchpoints between players in the financial sector and the end customer. Their technology is already in use at well-known companies.

About Deutsche Börse Group
Deutsche Börse Group is one of the largest exchange organisations worldwide. It organises markets characterised by integrity, transparency and safety for investors who invest capital and for companies that raise capital – markets on which professional traders buy and sell equities, derivatives and other financial instruments according to clear rules and under strict supervision. Deutsche Börse Group, with its services and systems, ensures the functioning of these markets and a level playing field for all participants – worldwide.

About the High-Tech Gründerfonds
High-Tech Gruenderfonds invests in young, high potential high-tech start-ups. The seed financing provided is designed to enable start-ups to take an idea through prototyping and to market launch. Typically, High-Tech Gruenderfonds invests EUR 600,000 in the seed stage, with the potential for up to a total of EUR 2 million per portfolio company in follow-on financing. Investors in this public/private partnership include the Federal Ministry of Economics and Energy, the KfW Banking Group, as well as strategic corporate investors including ALTANA, BASF, Bayer, B. Braun, Robert Bosch, CEWE, Daimler, Deutsche Post DHL, Deutsche Telekom, Evonik, Lanxess, media + more venture Beteiligungs GmbH & Co. KG, METRO, Qiagen, RWE Innogy, SAP, Tengelmann and Carl Zeiss. High-Tech Gruenderfonds has about EUR 576 million under management in two funds (EUR 272 million HTGF I, EUR 304 million HTGF II).

Contact:
High-Tech Gründerfonds Management GmbH
Dr. Marc Umber
Schlegelstr. 2
53113 Bonn
Tel.: +49.228.823001.00
Fax: +49.228.823000.50
info@htgf.de
www.high-tech-gruenderfonds.de