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The German start-up plans to expand around Europe, with eyes on Ireland, but will be entering a very crowded field.
Berlin’s Vivid Money, a newcomer on the neobank scene, has raised €60m in a Series B round to expand in Europe.
The company, founded in 2019, presents itself as an all-in-one digital banking app for payments, savings and investing in stocks and crypto assets, which includes very low minimum investments and education features to help people get involved in trading. It plans to generate revenue from subscription services.
The round was led by Greenoaks with previous investor Ribbit Capital contributing. The investment follows a €15m round just last November.
“This latest round of investment is a strong signal of support for our vision of a better future for European retail investors and customers,” co-founder Artem Yamanov said.
He added that the broad offering will set the company apart from the competition and is how it plans “to attract more customers across Europe”.
Vivid Money launched in its native Germany last year and has since moved into France, Spain and Italy. It now plans to expand into more countries in Europe after this latest funding round. The company has eyes on launching in Ireland but had no further details to share yet.
Whether it’s payments, savings or investments, Vivid will face stiff competition in a bloated fintech market in Europe. Revolut and N26 dominate the fintech start-up space across the region for day-to-day payments, with both rolling out features like trading and loans.
There has also been a glut of stock and crypto asset trading apps in the market, like Freetrade, which is just fresh off its own substantial funding round.
Alex Emeshev, the other co-founder of the company, said that trading and investment features from fintech start-ups need to come with sound educational pieces to help users understand what they are getting into.
“By educating them and guiding them as they learn how to become investors, we are not only expanding access to financial products in a seamless and delightful way, but are also committed to helping our customers create long-lasting value,” Emeshev said.
Patrick Backhouse, partner at lead investor Greenoaks, added that the “end-state in this market” is an all-in-one service.
“The team at Vivid Money has been executing extraordinarily fast having already launched banking, stocks and crypto investments, peer-to-peer payments, budgeting tools, and a services marketplace,” he said.
