In an Industry Twist, Paypal-Backed Fintech Raisin Just Bought a Bank

At a time when many banks are looking to invest in fintech companies, open banking fintech Raisin is taking the road less travelled by buying MHB Bank of Frankfurt, its longtime service bank. Raisin operates an online marketplace for savings and investments across Europe hoping to grant wider access to its customers and better interest rates.

With a full banking license secured thanks to the acquisition, the Berlin-based fintech can expand into more European markets, and finally offer deposit services to retail customers. Much of its outsourced operations can be brought in-house, and expansion of various financial services into different markets are made easier.

The acquisition of the shares in MHB by Raisin is still subject to final approval by German Federal Financial Supervisory Authority (BaFin) and the European Central Bank (ECB).

Raisin CEO and co-founder Dr. Tamaz Georgadze explained:

Dr. Tamaz Georgadze

“Together with MHB, we can continue to develop — and seamlessly integrate — the services we offer customers, partner banks and distribution partners.”

” With the changes this takeover makes possible, we will be able to offer better services more sustainably to our customers and partners. We want to grow ‘deposits as a service’ into a widely-accepted market standard for banks across Europe.”

The acquisition comes just a month after Raisin’s Series D fundraising round, netting them €100 million from investors like PayPal, Thrive Capital, Ribbit Capital and Index Ventures.

Raisin was founded in 2013 by Tamaz Georgadze, Frank Freund and Michael Stephan.

Raisin’s marketplace offers a one-stop access at no charge to products from all over Europe, as well as globally diversified, cost-effective ETF portfolios—all under one account and platform. Since launch in 2013, Raisin claims to have brokered €11 billion for over 165,000 customers in 31 European countries and more than 65 partner banks.

Featured image via Raisin