The private credit market is booming, with global assets under management reaching approximately €2.1 trillion, and Europe alone representing more than €430 billion. Yet despite these impressive figures, a pervasive problem undermines the sector’s growth: fragmented, manual, and error-prone processes dominate how most non-bank lenders manage credit facilities. In an exclusive conversation with TFN, Nicolas Kipp, Founder and CEO of Credibur, puts it bluntly: “Facility management, drawdowns, covenant tracking, reporting: it’s all fragmented, manual, and error-prone. This is a systemic issue affecting the industry as a whole.”
For alternative lenders managing less than €100 million in assets under management (AUM), the lack of dedicated infrastructure particularly limits their ability to scale and innovate. The resulting bottlenecks slow capital flows and increase operational risks, making the sector vulnerable to disruption.
Credibur, a Berlin-based FinTech founded in late 2024, is addressing this gap with an ambitious plan: to build the missing infrastructure layer between alternative lenders and institutional capital providers. The company has developed a modular, API- and AI-first SaaS platform that automates the full lifecycle of debt facilities, from deal structuring and contract management to capital calls, reporting, and special purpose vehicle administration.
“At Credibur, we’re building the infrastructure layer between alternative lending and institutional funding. Our software brings structure, clarity, and automation to these processes, making it easier for lenders of all sizes to access capital and stay compliant,” explains Kipp.
Today, the startup closed a $2.2 million pre-seed led by FinTech-focused venture capital firm Redstone, alongside Silicon Valley’s MS&AD Ventures, Canadian VC Inovia, and several notable industry angels. While exact valuation details remain confidential, the company confirms it aligns with typical European pre-seed benchmarks.
Founders with deep industry roots
Nicolas Kipp is a seasoned expert in finance, credit risk, and FinTech innovation, with over a dozen years of experience. His career began in strategy consulting, where he advised traditional banks, insurance companies, and e-commerce firms. In 2016, he joined Ratepay, a white-label payments provider, rising from Senior Project Manager to Chief Risk Officer. Before founding Credibur, Kipp co-founded Banxware, Europe’s leading embedded lending platform, where he built the company’s risk management, finance, and operations teams.
Kipp reflects on his motivation: “Lending serves as a fundamental pillar of economic and social progress: it funds the businesses we start, the degrees we earn, and the infrastructure we build. Throughout my career, I developed a specialisation in bridging the gap between traditional banking and the FinTech world, particularly in complex credit and lending scenarios.”
Joining him is co-founding engineer Kim Kachegarov, an accomplished full-stack engineer passionate about credit operations and addressing technological pain points in data-intensive domains. Kim previously led the automation of credit facility management for the Danish factoring provider Moneyflow.
When asked about Credibur’s genesis, Kipp describes a recurring and frustrating pattern: “Credibur was driven by both our personal experiences and market needs we recognised across our more than fifteen years on the operational side of lending, from buy now, pay later (BNPL) to SME finance. While building and consulting for over a dozen originating lenders, we repeatedly encountered the same obstacle: institutional capital flows remained stuck in manual workflows and Excel spreadsheets. It slowed innovation and excluded smaller, more diverse lenders from scaling. So we built the infrastructure we wished we had back then.”
The current Credibur team comprises over 10 people representing five nationalities, spanning a broad range of ages and educational backgrounds, from high school dropouts to academics. Currently, the company’s gender diversity ratio stands at approximately 20%, and it aims to improve this through future hiring practices.
Technology that does the heavy lifting
What distinguishes Credibur in the market is its laser focus on automation and orchestration, rather than merely enhancing workflow. Kipp emphasises, “We are building very focused software. Instead of trying to solve everything, we’d rather do one smaller thing incredibly well. We are API-first and AI-first, of course, but the main difference is our unwavering focus on full automation, rather than workflow enhancement. Our goal isn’t to build better spreadsheets, but to replace them altogether.”
The platform surpasses traditional reporting tools by orchestrating the entire institutional funding lifecycle and delivering all mission-critical decision-making data in real-time. This empowers alternative lenders, such as BNPL providers, factoring and leasing companies, as well as institutional investors including asset managers, debt funds, and family offices, with clearer, faster, and more reliable insights.
For most lenders today, managing their capital stack involves a mix of cumbersome spreadsheets, legal counsel, and accounting firms. Established vendors exist, but many rely on outdated legacy systems. “This industry has quite a few established players, but their reliance on outdated legacy systems creates a significant opportunity for disruption. The market is primed for innovation, and we’re excited to be at the forefront of reshaping the private credit market by making cumbersome manual workflows a thing of the past,” Kipp notes.
What’s next for Credibur?
Looking forward three to five years, Credibur intends to become the operating system on the debt side of lending, not only providing better reporting but enabling full orchestration. “In the short term, we plan to focus on scaling across Europe, deepening integrations with lenders and investors, and expanding coverage across asset classes,” says Kipp.
Their longer-term mission centres on making private credit “more accessible, more transparent, and more resilient, especially for new, diverse originators who’ve been underserved by traditional infrastructure.”
For Credibur, building lending infrastructure is not just a savvy business opportunity but a societal imperative. Kipp reflects, “At first glance, lending infrastructure might not seem like the stuff of startup dreams. But we’re not just passionate about it; we know that lending is what shapes society. It funds the businesses we start, the degrees we earn, and the infrastructure we build. But too often, the right lenders can’t scale because of operational barriers.”
