European fintech Raisin grows in UK despite pandemic and Brexit

 

  • Against trend, Raisin digs into UK and passes 2020 annual UK growth target in 3rd quarter
  • Savings marketplace Raisin uses European integration partnership model to successfully expand within UK
  • Raisin UK launches embedded “Savings as a Service” cooperations with AJ Bell and Willis Owen

With leading European fintechs pulling out of the UK and a growing trend in the financial industry away from London to the continent, Raisin continues to chart the reverse course of expansion across the Channel. On launching Raisin UK’s new cooperation with FTSE250-listed investment platform AJ Bell, Raisin is expanding its “Savings as a Service” offer to UK-based financial service providers. Based on the fintech’s continental model, Raisin UK now enables banks and other financial institutions to embed Raisin’s deposits platform.

The new partnerships launched as the fintech surpassed its 2020 growth target of £1 billion in total deposits brokered, a full quarter early. The success of the German fintech’s B2B2C integrations in Europe have extended Raisin’s reach, connecting its deposits marketplace to each new integration partner’s existing customer base. Based on Raisin’s European experience, financial service providers in the UK will now be able to access and scale cash savings products from a range of partner banks, by integrating Raisin UK. These providers then offer the Raisin marketplace to their own customers quickly and efficiently, without investing in expensive backend systems development, meeting legal hurdles, or developing their own extensive 3rd-party bank relationships.

The “white label” cooperation with leading UK investment platform AJ Bell Youinvest underlies the investment company’s new Cash savings hub – its first deposit product line – and comes on the heels of a successful soft launch with Willis Owen earlier this year.

Raisin VP Europe Katharina Lueth said: “Raisin’s goal is to create a European champion with its marketplace for financial products. From the start we have considered the UK an essential part of Europe, as our response to Brexit demonstrated. Following the Brexit referendum we acquired a UK-based fintech and launched Raisin UK two years ago. We have not doubted the importance of the market or our commitment to UK growth for a moment since, and we’re proud to see the acceptance of our business model by UK financial institutions and consumers alike.”

Raisin VP Europe and Chair of Raisin UK Katharina Lueth

 

Kevin Mountford, co-founder of Raisin UK, commented: “Service strategies have seen a rise in several key industries over the last 18 months and embedded banking services is one of the fastest growing. With the current global landscape changing almost daily, there is an increasing demand from consumers looking for a better rate of return on their money, and the new Savings as a Service proposition allows existing players in the market to diversify their offering quickly to meet this demand. We are really excited about our latest partnership with AJ Bell and look forward to helping the business to deliver valuable products and services to its customers.”

 

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 and pension products (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 placed 26.5 billion EUR for more than 285,000 customers in 28+ European countries and 97 partner banks. Raisin was named to Europe’s top 5 fintechs again by the renowned FinTech50 listing in 2020 and is backed by European and American investors, including btov Ventures, Goldman Sachs, PayPal Ventures, Thrive Capital, Index Ventures, Orange Digital Ventures and Ribbit Capital. Raisin UK in Manchester, banking-as-a-service provider Raisin Bank in Frankfurt, pensions specialist fairr, and Raisin Technology (formerly Choice Financial Solutions) all belong to the Raisin Group.

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