Solaris SE (until November 2022 as Solarisbank AG) is a credit institution licensed in

Germany Germany, officially the Federal Republic of Germany, is a country in Central Europe. It lies between the Baltic Sea and the North Sea to the north and the Alps to the south. Its sixteen States of Germany, constituent states have a total popu ...

, with

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and branches in

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and

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. The company's business is the operation of digital banking (

bank accounts A bank account is a financial account maintained by a bank or other financial institution in which the financial transactions between the bank and a customer are recorded. Each financial institution sets the terms and conditions for each type ...

debit Debits and credits in double-entry bookkeeping are entries made in account ledgers to record changes in value resulting from business transactions. A debit entry in an account represents a transfer of value ''to'' that account, and a cred ...

and credit cards, consumer loans, e.g. buy-now-pay-later) and other

financial services Financial services are service (economics), economic services tied to finance provided by financial institutions. Financial services encompass a broad range of tertiary sector of the economy, service sector activities, especially as concerns finan ...

( e-money, payment transactions), as well as the custody and trading of

cryptocurrencies A cryptocurrency (colloquially crypto) is a digital currency designed to work through a computer network that is not reliant on any central authority, such as a government or bank, to uphold or maintain it. Individual coin ownership records ...

in the B2B sector.

Background

Overview

Solaris SE was established in 2015 as a part of Finleap, a fintech company builder based in

Berlin, Germany Berlin ( ; ) is the capital and largest city of Germany, by both area and population. With 3.7 million inhabitants, it has the highest population within its city limits of any city in the European Union. The city is also one of the states of ...

, with Andreas Bittner and Marko Wenthin as its founders. Solaris was officially launched in March 2016, after receiving its banking license. In October 2016, the company entered into a

strategic partnership A strategic partnership (also see strategic alliance) is a relationship between two commercial enterprises, usually formalized by one or more business contracts. A strategic partnership will usually fall short of a legal partnership entity, agency ...

with MasterCard in order to develop novel banking modules. In February 2017, Solaris raised €26.3 million in its series A funding round from Yabeo Capital,

Arvato The Arvato Group is a global services company headquartered in Gütersloh, Germany. Its services include customer support, information technology, logistics, and finance. The history of Arvato goes back to the printing and industry services divi ...

Financial Solutions, Finleap,

Unicredit UniCredit S.p.A. (formerly UniCredito Italiano S.p.A.) is an Italian multinational banking group headquartered in Milan. It is a systemically important bank (according to the list provided by the Financial Stability Board in 2022) and the world' ...

and the Japan-based SBI group. The company also brought in Dr. Roland Folz as CEO. In March 2017, Solaris is said to have brought over 20 companies onto its banking platform and it is reported to have passported its banking license to six European countries. In March 2018, Solaris raised $70 million in Series B funding from Arvato Financial Solutions, SBI Group,

BBVA Banco Bilbao Vizcaya Argentaria, S.A. (), better known by its initialism BBVA, is a Spanish multinational financial services company based in Bilbao, with operative offices in Madrid. It is one of the largest financial institutions in the world, ...

Visa Visa most commonly refers to: * Travel visa, a document that allows entry to a foreign country * Visa Inc., a US multinational financial and payment cards company ** Visa Debit card issued by the above company ** Visa Electron, a debit card ** Vi ...

, Lakestar and ABN AMRO's Digital Impact Fund. In June 2020, Solaris raised €60 million in Series C funding led by HV Capital with participation from Vulcan Capital, Samsung Catalyst Fund and Storm Ventures.

Technology

Solaris provides a ''

white label White label may refer to: * White-label product, a permitted replication and rebranding of a product * White label record, records with plain white labels attached. * White Label Music, an independent record label based in the United Kingdom * ''Wh ...

'' banking platform, which is said to allow its users, mostly digital companies and

startups, to access various banking service modules, which then can be integrated into their processes,

website A website (also written as a web site) is any web page whose content is identified by a common domain name and is published on at least one web server. Websites are typically dedicated to a particular topic or purpose, such as news, educatio ...

s or

mobile app A mobile application or app is a computer program or software application designed to run on a mobile device such as a smartphone, phone, tablet computer, tablet, or smartwatch, watch. Mobile applications often stand in contrast to desktop appli ...

lications.

Special audit

In January 2022, the

Federal Financial Supervisory Authority The Federal Financial Supervisory Authority (), better known by its abbreviation BaFin, is Germany's integrated financial regulatory authority. Since 2014, it has been Germany's national competent authority within European Banking Supervision. ...

(BaFin) of Germany ordered a special audit because of organizational deficiencies identified during a bank supervisory audit from 2020. The independent external auditors are supposed to verify whether Solaris has implemented the respective measures which were agreed with BaFin as a result of the Art. 44 KWG standard audit. Folz publicly welcomed this action, claiming that the company held no secrets.

Awards and recognition

Solaris SE was one of the finalists for the "Most Disruptive Innovation" Award at the 2016 Global Banking Awards, held in

Spain Spain, or the Kingdom of Spain, is a country in Southern Europe, Southern and Western Europe with territories in North Africa. Featuring the Punta de Tarifa, southernmost point of continental Europe, it is the largest country in Southern Eur ...

References

External links

Official website
{{Germany-bank-stub Financial technology companies Banks established in 2016 Companies based in Berlin 2016 establishments in Germany