lemon.markets today announced it has secured an additional €12 million in funding from CommerzVentures, Heliad, and its existing investors, including Creandum, Lakestar, Lightspeed and System.one, as they continue to pursue their ambitious goal of opening 100 million brokerage accounts. The Berlin-based FinTech provides digital brokerage and custody infrastructure, enabling any company to offer investment products. With the fresh capital, lemon.markets will accelerate the extension of its platform and launch new partners. 

"With CommerzVentures, we have found a strong partner who has impressed us with its deep understanding of our market. We share a common vision and philosophy for developing lemon.markets into one of the most influential players in the industry. With the fresh funding, we will double down on the momentum in the market, bringing more partners and products live over the coming months." explains Max Linden, founder and CEO of lemon.markets.

Momentum for lemon.markets: Licenses, product launches, and partnerships In the first half of 2024, lemon.markets achieved significant milestones: obtaining comprehensive BaFin licenses, onboarding their first partners, and continuous platform expansion. In January 2024, the FinTech, which was founded in 2020, obtained the licenses to operate as an investment firm from BaFin. These licenses allow lemon.markets to provide contract broking, investment advice, financial portfolio management, financial commission business, proprietary trading, and custody business. 

In cooperation with industry leaders such as Deutsche Bank, BNP Paribas, and Tradegate, lemon.markets officially launched its product in March with the financial education app beatvest. lemon.markets’ platform empowers beatvest to offer ETF investments for its B2C customers, serving as the first use case in the wealth management vertical. 

Another recently announced partnership is with sustainable banking provider Tomorrow, where lemon.markets is entering the banking segment as its second vertical. This partnership also features lemon.markets’ first migration project, as Tomorrow will transfer its securities offering from Solaris SE to lemon.markets. At the same time, lemon.markets is expanding its range of services by introducing mutual funds as a financial instrument in cooperation with one of the world’s leading fund marketplaces Allfunds. 

"At CommerzVentures, we love partnering with the most talented teams that are solving financial services’ most complex problems. lemon.markets certainly ticks both boxes. Max is an impressive young leader who has built a first-class team around him, and we are beyond excited to lead this round and join them on the journey to make lemon.markets the largest and most modern brokerage and custody platform in Europe," says Jonas Wenke, CommerzVentures.

Next steps: More partners, new products, and further team growth 

The market for brokerage and custody infrastructure is booming, with a forecasted market volume of $63 billion for the next five years, including 39% growth for the custody market alone. Both traditional players and FinTechs have recognized the potential to innovate digital investment solutions, driving accessibility for consumers. The need for this is evident: In Germany alone, a significant portion of financial assets – 41.7%, according to the Bundesbank – are held in cash and bank deposits, including overnight and fixed-term deposits. 

Providing brokerage and custody infrastructure for ETFs, Funds, and in the future, Stocks, lemon.markets’ enables FinTechs, Banks and Wealth Managers to offer their customers access to capital markets. The lemon.markets platform is designed in a modular way to be configured based on the partner's use case, and with its API-first architecture significantly reduces integration time. Consistently combining technology and compliance expertise, lemon.markets is positioning itself as a digital, regulated and customer-centric infrastructure provider. The Berlin-based FinTech supports partners along the entire value chain - from migration projects to the launch of individual investment products. Continuing on this path, lemon.markets will build out its team over the coming year to service the scaling customer volumes, develop new products and launch more partners. 

"I am convinced that expanding the range of digital investment products is crucial to encourage broader participation in the capital markets. Achieving this goal requires established players in asset management, banking, and brokerage to reevaluate their infrastructure. The lemon.markets team combines extensive securities services expertise with a deep technical understanding, uniquely positioning them to win both FinTechs and traditional players as clients," says Simon Schmincke, General Partner at Creandum.