Solving the complexities of Open Banking through its cloud multi-banking data infrastructure, Finqware aims to be a platform for innovation in Fintech with focus on Central and Eastern Europe. Its data aggregation infrastructure is already battle-tested with leading banks as beneficiaries in Romania, Croatia and Greece.
Finqware, a European Fintech startup based in Romania, raised a Seed round of €500,000 for further expansion and product development, in a round led by Elevator Ventures, the corporate venture capital firm of Raiffeisen Bank International (RBI). Previous investors, including GapMinder VC and private business angels, participated in the round and reiterated their strong support for the company.
Finqware was founded in 2018 with the aim of developing disruptive technology and solutions to put Open Banking at work, one of the most important shifts in the financial industry on its path to data driven economy models.
Leveraging the Revised Payment Services Directive in the EU, the so called PSD2 regulation, Finqware is set to simplify and enhance data access for banks, companies and fintechs to the financial data flows in banking. Its data aggregation infrastructure is already battle-tested with leading banks as beneficiaries in Romania, Croatia and Greece. Finqware already enables banks in the Central and Eastern Europe region to consume data from other banks.
The company got a high profile in May 2020, when it connected for the first time the main banks in Croatia to Open Banking, proving the functionalities and the value creation potential in this market in a project with OTP Banka. Finqware achieved 90% market coverage in Croatia in only six weeks of implementation time (all done remotely in lockdown conditions).
In September last year, Finqware marked a historic moment in the development of banking services in Romania by implementing with local market leader Banca Transilvania, for the first time, a multi-banking facility on its omnichannel application.
Finqware intends to speed up its market expansion in the CEE region, addressing the growing needs of Open Banking data consumption of banks and other financial players. The company is focusing on product development to grow its value creation capabilities and better serve all players that want to use open banking in their budgeting, credit risk, accounting or payment processes.
“For Finqware, having its home market in Central and Eastern Europe, Elevator Ventures is the perfect fit to get on board as a supporting partner, in order to grow and secure our regional market stronghold. As a corporate venture fund of an important banking player, Elevator Ventures has the know-how and a deep grasp on the regional financial ecosystem that could give a potential competitive advantage for our business. We see a lot of demand by banks in our region and are looking forward to helping all players in the financial industry from Fintech startups to top tier banks in creating value. We are committed to be an innovation partner for any bank in the region to put Open Banking at work,” said Cosmin Cosma, Co-founder and CEO of Finqware.
“We started supporting this company because the need for new financial infrastructures will change the way banking will be done in Central and Eastern Europe very soon. The Finqware team has a vision that we continue to support and that is already started to be validated by the strong response from the market with important banking players in the region already choosing their technology. We are looking forward to their international success,” mentioned Sergiu Rosca, Founding Partner at GapMinder VC.
“Our investment in Finqware is fully in line with our goal to support regional CEE Fintechs to grow exponentially, leveraging our financial and knowledge support. With its top-notch Open Banking technology and its proven track record of successful customer projects, Finqware is well positioned to become one of the European Open Banking leaders in the years to come,” declared Maximilian Schausberger, Managing Director of Elevator Ventures.
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Finqware is a Romanian technology company with the aim of putting Open Banking at work. From its early stage, investors already spotted the growth potential of Finqware and in 2019 received a first seed investment of EUR 180,000 from Gapminder VC. Also, the company is internationally recognized for its technology with numerous awards, including a Seal of Excellence from the European Commission.
Elevator Ventures is the Corporate Venture Capital entity of Raiffeisen Bank International (RBI) headquartered in Vienna. Its primary focus is on early stage and growth investments in Fintech and related enabling technologies in Central and Eastern Europe. In the role of a leading growth partner for Fintechs in CEE, Elevator Ventures leverages RBI Group’s expertise, network and corporate strength in order to help promising scaleups expand across this dynamic region and beyond.
Banking 4.0 – „how was the experience for you”
„So many people are coming here to Bucharest, people that I see and interact on linkedin and now I get the change to meet them in person. It was like being to the Football World Cup but this was the World Cup on linkedin in payments and open banking.”
Many more interesting quotes in the video below:
