Orange Digital Ventures invests in Raisin, the leading pan-European savings marketplace

Orange Digital Ventures announces its latest investment with Raisin, an innovative Berlin-based fintech making strides in the European savings marketplace. Orange has joined the €100m Series D fundraising round of Raisin alongside existing investors Index Ventures, PayPal, Ribbit Capital and Thrive Capital. The new round allows Raisin, one of the fastest growing European start-ups, to expand its core service in at least two additional European markets this year and extend its line of investment products.

 

Through its partnerships with over 75 banks from 24 countries, and with over 175,000 users in 31 countries and €12 billion brokered deposits, Raisin has created the leading pan-European marketplace in retail banking, removing barriers to profitable and easy savings for consumers as well as creating simple and fast access to liquidity for banks.

 

Raisin offers a ‘deposit-as-a-service’ platform to its partner banks, providing them with access to markets and to liquidity across Europe, and competitive savings and investment opportunities to its customers, who can select from Raisin’s 250 plus savings products. Partner banks can also offer their own customers a one-stop-shop savings and investments portfolio directly integrated in their web and mobile interface, enabled by Raisin technology and offers. The customer experience for savers is convenient and user-friendly — and strengthens the relationship to their primary bank.

 

The opportunity that Raisin addresses lies in the retail savings market, often considered the beating heart of economies, where deposits are matched with credit through retail banks. In Europe, according to the European Banking Federation¹ the total deposits of businesses and households in 2017, across more than 6,250 institutions, was approximately €16.3 trillion.¹

 

Raisin’s solution aligns with Orange’s strategic objectives, particularly in mobile financial services, where the group has two key strong initiatives with Orange Bank in Europe and Orange Money in Africa. These both aim at serving the customer with the best products and a differentiated customer experience, to improve customers’ management of their financial affairs. Orange has a strong open innovation DNA, which leads the company to connect with cutting-edge start-ups, in order to make the most of new technologies and business models. Moreover, Raisin and Orange will mutually benefit from each other’s technological assets and the European go-to-market and fintech ecosystems — aiming at the same goal: changing the banking market.

 

Marc Rennard, Chairman of Orange Digital Ventures

 

“Orange Digital Ventures has been impressed by Raisin’s team, vision and achievements and is now pleased to participate in Raisin’s quest to become the leading global financial marketplace for savings and investment products. ODV will bring all its support to Raisin’s expansion into new markets and product development,” said Marc Rennard, Chairman of Orange Digital Ventures.

Dr. Tamaz Georgadze, CEO and co-founder of Raisin

Dr. Tamaz Georgadze, co-founder and CEO of Raisin, added: “We are delighted to welcome Orange Digital Ventures as one of our investors. It’s particularly exciting for us because Orange has a proven track record, as both a successful international mobile operator and an accomplished financial technology provider. In addition to the investment, we do see potential synergies and concrete partnership opportunities with Orange Bank.”

¹ https://www.ebf.eu/ebf-media-centre/banking-in-europe-ebf-publishes-2018-facts-figures/

 

About Raisin

A trailblazer for open banking and the leading pan-European one-stop shop for online savings and investments, Berlin-based fintech Raisin was founded in 2012 by Dr. Tamaz Georgadze (CEO), Dr. Frank Freund (CFO) and Michael Stephan (COO). Raisin’s platforms — under the brand WeltSparen in the German-speaking world — are breaking down barriers to better savings for European consumers and SMEs: Raisin’s marketplace offers simple access at no charge to attractive and guaranteed deposit products from all over Europe, as well as globally diversified, cost-effective ETF portfolios (currently available in Germany). With one online registration, customers can choose from all available investments and subsequently manage their accounts. Since launch in 2013, Raisin has brokered 12 billion EUR for more than 175,000 customers in 31 European countries and over 75 partner banks. Raisin was named to Europe’s top five fintechs by the renowned FinTech50 awards and is backed by prestigious European and American investors such as Index Ventures, Orange Digital Ventures, PayPal, Ribbit Capital and Thrive Capital. For more information meet us on https://www.raisin.com or follow on Twitter @Raisin_EN..

 

About Orange Digital Ventures

Orange Digital Ventures is a 150 million euros early-stage tech fund which invests globally. It finances disruptive start-ups in the fields of connectivity & networks, enterprise SaaS (cloud, AI, big data, cybersecurity…), Fintech and Internet of Things. Backed by the Orange group, the fund provides “smart money” by facilitating synergies with its various business units and its 264 million customers in 27 countries.
For more information, meet us on digitalventures.orange.com or follow us on Twitter @Orange_DV.

 

About Orange

Orange is one of the world’s leading telecommunications operators with sales of 41 billion euros in 2018 and 149,000 employees worldwide at 31 March 2019, including 90,000 employees in France. The Group has a total customer base of 264 million customers worldwide at 31 March 2018, including 204 million mobile customers and 20 million fixed broadband customers. The Group is present in 27 countries. Orange is also a leading provider of global IT and telecommunication services to multinational companies, under the brand Orange Business Services. In March 2015, the Group presented its new strategic plan “Essentials2020” which places customer experience at the heart of its strategy with the aim of allowing them to benefit fully from the digital universe and the power of its new generation networks.

Orange is listed on Euronext Paris (symbol ORA) and on the New York Stock Exchange (symbol ORAN).
For more information on the internet and on your mobile: www.orange.com, www.orange-business.com or to follow us on Twitter: @orangegrouppr.
Orange and any other Orange product or service names included in this material are trademarks of Orange or Orange Brand Services Limited.

 

Media contacts

Nicole Clarke, +44 7811 128 457, nicole.clarke@orange.com
Olivier Emberger, +33 1 44 44 93 93, olivier.emberger@orange.com
Nicole Scheplitz, +49 160 218 65 24, nicole.scheplitz@raisin.com