Vivid Money, a Berlin-based challenger bank with over 500,000 customers is touted to be a one-stop-shop super app that combines all the financial requirements.
€100M investment
Now, the fintech has grabbed €100 million in a Series C funding and over doubled its previous valuation reaching €775 million. With this, the total funding raised by the company is over €200 million. The investment round was led by Greenoaks Capital alongside the participation of Ribbit Capital and SoftBank Vision Fund 2. Previously, the German fintech secured a Series B funding round in 2021 reaching a valuation of €360 million.
Vivid Money will use the funds to extend its investment and banking offerings. It will focus on converting Vivid’s ecosystem into a community where users come to bank, save, invest, learn and manage all their finances. It will hire fresh talent across its European offices to improve its product, build the app’s educational features, and enhance marketing.
The financing round comes close to the heels of achieving exceptional growth over its first year of operations, scaling its monthly transaction volume via its platform and expanding its user base by five times since its previous round. Also, Vivid Money has increased its revenue by 25 times.
Artem Iamanov, co-founder of Vivid Money, said. “We are excited to welcome the SoftBank Vision Fund 2 as our new partner, and we are delighted to continue working with our existing partners Greenoaks and Ribbit. We’re now ready to strengthen our existing product and expand it further by connecting our customers to each other and establishing a community of like-minded people who are dedicated to learning and growing their money together.”
“In just over a year, Vivid Money has already built one of Europe’s most beloved consumer banking platforms, allowing users to manage their entire financial lives in a single app. Since we invested last year, we’ve been thrilled to watch their rapid pace of new product development, which has delighted existing users, attracted new customers, and deepened the platform’s value proposition,” said Patrick Backhouse, partner at Greenoaks.
Financial super app
Vivid Money was founded in 2019 by Artem Iamanov and Alexander Emeshev in Berlin. Its team comprises a pool of over 300 highly qualified, international team. It is the first financial service platform, which combines all daily money needs of users in one app.
The fintech offers an easy, flexible, and transparent solution to grow their money. The company’s mission is to provide its customers throughout Europe with a superior banking and investment experience and to offer a wide range of financial services, including savings accounts, multi-currency accounts and investments in stocks and crypto without unnecessary fees.
The startup launched its financial platform in 2020 in Germany and operates in France, Italy and Spain. It provides a single solution for all of finances ranging from banking to investing. It strives to help customers throughout Europe save more and invest intelligently, enabled by a delightful user experience and best-in-class financial education.
Impressive features on offer
With this startup, it is possible to invest in fractions of favourite companies with over 3,000 stocks and ETFs with no commission. The company’s customers can now invest in stocks, crypto, and precious metal assets from as little as €0.01 with Vivid’s fractional shares, coins and metals. The platform also allows users to invest in Special Purpose Acquisition Companies (SPACs), which is unavailable to retail investors.
Also, customers can save as they spend with Vivid’s innovative cashback feature that rewards customers for everyday transactions. Already, customers are enjoying other features, including the free metal debit card, subscription control, spending breakdown reports, 15 free sub-accounts, and easy-to-manage shared accounts.
In the fintech world obsessed with challenger banks, Vivid’s competitors include Sequoia-backed neobroker Trade Republic, N26, Monzo, and Starling Bank.
“There are those who see retail investors as easy sources of revenue, either by betting against them, selling their orders to others, or encouraging risky investing behavior through casino-like tactics,” Alexander Emeshev, co-founder of Vivid Money, said. “We believe our clients deserve better. By educating them, connecting them with each other and giving them a variety of responsible investing options, we believe we can be a company that fights for our customers.”
