Peter Thiel, the fintech pioneer, Paypal co-founder and first outside investor in facebook, has made an investment in Hamburg-based Deposit Solutions GmbH, the first open architecture platform for retail deposits inEurope. His investment is an add-on to the September growth financing round led by FinLab AG, a leading German fintech investor. In total, EUR 6.5 million have been raised in this round. Existing investors include the global venture capital firm e.ventures, which backed the company as first institutional investor, as well as business angels Stefan Wiskemann, Stefan Glänzer and Christoph Linkwitz. The current financing round supports the European-wide rollout of Deposit Solution and its unique open architecture retail brand ZINSPILOT.

Deposit Solutions: Open Architecture for retail savings deposits across Europe

Thiel is best known for backing companies with transformational technologies. Deposit Solutions' aim is to transform the EUR 9 trillion European market of retail savings deposits with a unique b-to-b approach: Deposit Solutions' proprietary technology, which the firm developed over multiple years since its founding in 2011, allows European banks which seek money (so called Product Banks) to list their savings offers on an open architecture platform and at the same time allows retail banks (so called Client Banks) to market all savings products listed by other banks on the platform to their own clients. The key innovation is that bank clients can use all savings offers with just their one account at their Client Bank and do not need to open numerous new accounts at other banks.

The unique solution creates a win-win-win situation: Retail banks can offer their clients best-in-class interest rates without losing the client relationship to another bank and at the same time can manage excess liquidity. Savers just need one master account with their local bank and can build a portfolio of savings products in the same simple way they would buy shares or mutual funds. Banks looking for retail deposit funding can gather cross-border retail deposits onto their home balance sheet and gain instant access to a large universe of clients without expensive marketing or the need to operate a proprietary retail infrastructure.

Proprietary technology revolutionizing value chain for savers and retail banks  

The platform is run on a proven technology. Since 2011, Deposit Solutions has already mediated deposits in excess of EUR 1 billion in different b-to-b applications. In addition to this, Deposit Solutions launched its own retail brand ZINSPILOT in 2014, which markets savings offers listed on the platform directly to German savers.

Founder Tim Sievers explains: "We introduce to the retail deposits business what has long been a standard for other bank products such as mutual funds and mortgages: an open architecture for instant-access and fixed-term deposit products. With this innovation, we enable banks to reach a new level of customer service and efficiency in their retail deposit business. In addition, we help realize the uniform, cross-border European banking market called for by politicians and regulators."

Peter Thiel adds: "With its unique approach, Deposit Solutions is revolutionizing the value chain in the retail deposit business by creating significant advantages for savers and banks. It offers a clear, distinct competitive alternative secured by a proprietary technology with the potential to become the new back-end for the European retail deposit market."