German fintech Raisin to enter $12.7 trillion U.S. deposits market

Raisin, the Berlin-based European savings and investment marketplace, today announced that it is entering the U.S. market with the appointment of financial industry expert, Paul Knodel, as U.S. CEO. Raisin will bring its cross-border deposits business model to the $12.7 trillion U.S. deposits market. This expansion follows its groundbreaking acquisition of a bank. Raisin is backed by more than $200 million in financing from leading global fintech PayPal, as well as Index Ventures, Thrive Capital, Ribbit Capital and Orange Digital Ventures among others.

Paul Knodel joins Raisin with more than 20 years of experience in executive and senior management positions at Citigroup and Merrill Lynch as well as TD Ameritrade, E-Trade and robo-advisor Wealthfront. Knodel most recently led Wealthfront’s successful extension of its product suite into cash savings.

 

Raisin will help U.S. consumers earn much more on their cash savings

The typical American consumer earns 0.01 percent interest on their savings and, while opportunities exist globally to earn up to 270 times higher interest, the logistical hurdles to doing so are often too great. Raisin addresses exactly this issue, making the range of offers transparent and creating convenient and simple access to the best rates on the market.

Raisin’s entrance into the U.S. market is being supported by the German government’s U.S.-based ‘German Accelerator’ program. The fintech was selected as one of 12 top German startups that are looking to bring successful business models to the U.S. market.

 

Raisin’s solution: designed for both – customers and banks

Raisin pioneered the first deposits marketplace in 2013 to provide savers in Europe access to higher-interest savings products from partner banks across the continent. To banks it offers ‘deposits-as-a-service,’ which addresses the liquidity imbalance across the European Economic Area. Through its API white label solution Raisin created a way for banks, brokers and financial advisors suffering under negative interest rates to offer their customers access to competitive third party deposits. Raisin has mastered building international partnerships towards a new consumer-centric and democratizing form of banking with, among many others, N26, Commerzbank and Vanguard, one of the world’s largest investment management companies.

Raisin’s founders, Dr. Tamaz Georgadze, Dr. Frank Freund, and Michael Stephan

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 McKinsey alumni 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 (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 €13+ billion for more than 175,000 customers in 31 European countries and over 75 partner banks. Raisin has been named to Europe’s top five fintechs by the FinTech50 awards, CB Insights’ global Fintech 250, FT’s 100 Digital Champions Europe and European banking association Efma’s Best Fintech 2019.