You can find the episode on Fintech and all other episodes of our podcast on Spotify, iTunes, Deezer, Google Podcasts, Pocket Casts, Radio Public, Breaker, Overcast, Castbox, Podcast Addict and Anchor.
In our event outlook, we're looking forward to several offline events this year: the Gründerszene CTO Dinner, the Gründerszene Spätschicht (you'll receive a ticket discount for both events with the code "MunichStartup20"), and the International Entrepreneurs' Night at UnternehmerTUM. You can find even more events and online seminars in our calendar.
Fintech – the top dog among startup industries
According to an analysis by medium.com from June 2021 (from minute 2:15), there is no other industry worldwide that has more startups with a valuation of over $1 billion than Fintech. The second-placed segment Internet & Software Services is close behind with 116. A gap that becomes significantly larger when looking at the valuations, however. While the 130 Fintech unicorns have a total valuation of over $500 billion, the 116 unicorns from Internet & Software Services together only manage $288 billion. But financial technology also stands out in other areas: According to KPMG raised $210 billion in fresh capital last year alone.
However, fintechs in the Munich ecosystem are not continuing this global dominance. While the state capital also has a billion-dollar company in this sector – Scalable Capital – other segments can also boast similar successes. The transportation sector boasts three: Flix, Lilium, and Sono Motors. And in terms of overall valuation and total investments, fintech ranks fifth in both, according to our Insights.
Wealthtech from Scalable Capital and Wealthpilot
The first example in this episode shows that this does not prevent fintech startups from being successful: Scalable Capital After all, it's not for nothing that it has achieved a valuation of over €1.3 billion within just a few years. Starting at minute 4:05, we take a look at the development of the startup, founded in 2014, and its products.
While Scalable Capital addresses its offering directly to consumers, Wealthpilot (from minute 9:00) focuses on wealth advisors. Since 2017, the startup has been offering software for hybrid wealth management that prepares consumers' financial information for their advisors and automates processes. This should enable them to significantly increase their assets under management.
Fintech solutions for companies
Other startups, in turn, are targeting companies with their solutions. Finway, for example, is digitizing their entire financial department to finally put an end to Excel spreadsheets in financial management. The startup's software offers, among other things, digital access to approval processes, payments, and receipts – even on mobile devices. It also offers Finway The company offers physical and virtual debit cards. You can learn more about the startup starting at minute 11:20.
Cards are also available at Xpay (from minute 14:00), but these are prepaid credit cards from Mastercard. The company offers these to merchants so they can build a loyalty program for their customers. This allows retailers not only to offer various discounts and perks, but the cards also provide important data about purchasing behavior.
The VC Seventure Partners
Finally (from minute 16:00) we present you with Seventure Partners introduces one of Europe's most important VCs. The investor, headquartered in Paris with offices in London, Geneva, Basel, and Munich, has been active since 1997. The investor prefers to invest the approximately €850 million it manages in digital technologies and life sciences. The stage a startup is in is of little importance for a potential investment.
