DB1 Ventures, the corporate venture capital business of the Deutsche Börse group, has acquired a stake in German fintech start-up figo.
The investment formed part of figo’s latest financing drive, which raised a total of around €6.8 million. DB1 Ventures put up a seven-figure sum for what it called a “significant minority stake”.
Based in Hamburg, figo is a banking service provider focused on infrastructure, offering application programming interfaces linking products and services to over 3,000 financial sources.
It also offers a banking-as-a-service platform for aggregating financial data, and services designed to help firms comply with Payment Services Directive 2 (PSD2) and Access to Account requirements.
With the funds raised in this round of financing, figo intends to increase its visibility globally and to expand its products around PSD2 and other regulatory requirements.
André Bajorat, CEO of figo, said: "Deutsche Börse represents a perfect partner for figo—a financially involved investor that is at the same time a strategic partner. No other player of this type in the financial services sector stands for neutrality and is at the same time an infrastructure provider. With Deutsche Börse as a partner, figo will gain new enhanced visibility in the industry."
Ankur Kamalia, managing director and head of venture portfolio management and DB1 Ventures, Deutsche Börse, said: "The figo team, led by André Bajorat, has made clear the opportunities that exist for virtually every player in the financial sector and the enormous potential that PSD2 implementation offers to European industry."
He added: "In a changing financial landscape, figo has established itself as a reliable partner and has built up a fantastic fintech ecosystem around itself. We look forward to supporting their growth and also learning from the innovation they are driving."
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