Compliance without complications: SME-Neobank Relio secures pre-seed financing from SIX FinTech Ventures, High-Tech Gründerfonds and F10-Accelerator

April 26, 2021

Zurich-based fintech startup Relio secures a CHF 0,7 million pre-seed investment from SIX FinTech Ventures, High-Tech Gründerfonds, F10 Accelerator and Angel Investors. Founded by ex-Penta founder Lav Odorovic the company offers SME customers a bank account within a short time thanks to its automated and granular compliance checking process – and this also for customers with more complex compliance backgrounds.

Anyone starting a business needs a corporate account. But unfortunately, the onboarding process often drags on for weeks because every bank is required by law to check who the new customer is, how the business model works and where the financial flows come from. For SMEs, this is much more complex than in retail banking. Companies with foreign founders, in regulated industries or with innovative business models often encounter hurdles in the KYC check. Companies report up to twenty interactions with the bank before their account is finally opened or they are ultimately rejected.

Our promise is compliance without complications.

Lav Odorovic, founder and CEO of Relio

The compliance department is very often the limiting factor in banking. Relio is therefore building its digital business account around compliance as a core competency and is thus fundamentally changing the onboarding process. Thanks to this approach, more complex SMEs should be able to obtain an account quickly and without bureaucratic hurdles in the future. In order to realize the concept as independently as possible, the startup plans to obtain a (fintech) banking license from the Swiss supervisory authority FINMA.

Odorovic is a well-known figure in the fintech scene; he was previously founder and CEO of SME neobank Penta. He was able to gather a team of 10 with the idea behind Relio.

Challenger banks are driving digitalization by standardizing and simplifying financial services for the mass market. This approach reaches its limits with complex customers like many SMEs. With Relio, we’re taking a different approach by bringing customization and automation together to better serve these more sophisticated businesses.

Lav Odorovic, CEO Relio

SIX Fintech Ventures, the venture arm of SIX, High-Tech Gründerfonds and F10-Accelerator together with Business Angels like Revolut COO, Richard Davis, are investing in a pre-seed round.” Relio plans to use the fresh capital to expand its technical infrastructure so that everything is ready for the market launch by the time the fintech license is granted.

We are convinced of the potential of better onboarding compliance in SME banking. The irony of this case is that Relio itself was struggling to get a bank account. We believe Lav Odorovic and his team are the right people to build a suitable solution and grow in a market segment that so far cannot be served by incumbent providers today.

Maximilian Spelmeyer, Senior Investment Manager SIX Fintech Ventures

We are excited about Relio because of the talented founders with many years of experience, whom we trust to fundamentally change onboarding compliance processes in banking thanks to their new approach.

Daniela Bach, Senior Investment Manager High-Tech Gründerfonds

About Relio
Relio is developing the first Swiss digital account specifically for SMEs. Many companies struggle with bureaucratic hurdles when opening an account and then throughout the banking relationship. Relio’s technological platform allows compliance to be largely automated. As a result, even complex companies can open a business account within 24h without increasing Relio’s risk.

The Swiss fintech is also working on tools and software integrations that will save SMEs a lot of time and make teams even more productive. The startup was founded in December 2020 by Lav Odorovic and three other founders. Odorovic had previously built Challenger bank Penta as founder and CEO.

Media contact
Milos Stokic
T: +41 78 663 26 33
milos@relio.ch
www.relio.ch

About SIX Fintech Ventures
SIX Fintech Ventures is the CHF 50 million VC arm of Swiss financial market infrastructure provider SIX that invests in global early-stage startups with the goal of strengthening the innovation and competitiveness of the Swiss and Spanish financial centers. SIX Fintech Ventures invests in scalable seed and Series A stage companies that can become leaders in their segment. We are the partner for startups in the financial services sector.

Contact Investor
About SIX Fintech Ventures
Maximilian Spelmeyer
maximilian.spelmeyer@six-group.com
+41 (79) 897 75 09

About High-Tech Gründerfonds
The seed investor High-Tech Gründerfonds (HTGF) finances technology start-ups with growth potential. With a volume of around 900 million euros spread across three funds and an international partner network, HTGF has supported more than 600 start-ups since 2005. Its team of experienced investment managers and start-up experts supports the young companies with know-how, entrepreneurial spirit and passion. The focus is on high-tech start-ups in the fields of digital tech, industrial tech, life sciences, chemicals and related business areas. Nearly €3 billion in capital has been invested in the HTGF portfolio by external investors in more than 1,700 follow-on financing rounds to date. In addition, the fund has already successfully sold shares in more than 120 companies.

Investors in the public-private partnership include the German Federal Ministry for Economic Affairs and Energy, KfW Capital, the Fraunhofer-Gesellschaft, as well as ALTANA, BASF, Bayer, Boehringer Ingelheim, B.Braun, Robert Bosch, BÜFA, CEWE, Deutsche Bank, Deutsche Post DHL, Dräger, Drillisch AG, EVONIK, EWE AG, FOND OF, Haniel, Hettich, Knauf, Körber, LANXESS, media + more venture Beteiligungs GmbH & Co. KG, PHOENIX CONTACT, QIAGEN, RWE Generation SE, SAP, Schufa, Schwarz Group, STIHL, Thüga, Vector Informatik, WACKER and Wilh. Werhahn KG.

https://www.htgf.de/de/

Media contact
High-Tech Gründerfonds Management GmbH
Stefanie Grüter
T.: +49 228 – 82300 – 188
s.grueter@htgf.de

Investor contact
High-Tech Gründerfonds Management GmbH
Daniela Bach
Schlegelstrasse 2
53113 Bonn
T: +49 228 82300154
d.bach@htgf.de