Carsten Höltkemeyer, the firm’s CEO, stepped down at the end of 2025, the company said in its announcement last week. Steffen Jentsch, chief information officer and chief process officer for FinTech flatexDEGIRO AG, will take his place.
“Jentsch brings a proven track record in scaling digital financial platforms, along with deep expertise in regulatory transformation and digital banking solutions,” the announcement said.
Höltkemeyer is set to stay on in an advisory role. The announcement adds that Ansgar Finken, chief risk officer and head of its finance and technology area, is also stepping down, but will remain on in an advisory capacity.
Finken will be succeeded by Matthias Heinrich, former chief risk officer and member of flatexDEGIRO Bank AG’s executive board.
“I’m truly excited to join Solaris and lead the next chapter — one defined by durable growth built on regulatory strength and commercial execution,” Jentsch said.
“Digital B2B2C platforms thrive when cutting-edge technology, cloud-native infrastructure, and strong compliance frameworks work seamlessly together. Solaris has been a first mover in embedded finance and has helped shape the market across Europe.”
The release notes that the leadership change follows SBI’s acquisition of a majority stake in Solaris as part of the 140 million euro ($164 million) Series G funding round last February.
The news follows a year in which embedded finance “moved from consumer convenience to business as usual,” as PYMNTS wrote last week.
During 2025, embedded payments, lending and B2B finance all demonstrated clear signs of maturity — especially when tied to specific verticals and workflows instead of being deployed as generic platforms. The most successful implementations were almost invisible, woven directly into the systems where users already worked, the report added.
“The embedded finance revolution that transformed consumer payments is now reshaping B2 commerce — with far greater stakes,” Sandy Weil, chief revenue officer at Galileo, said in an interview with PYMNTS.
“In 2025, businesses are embedding working capital, virtual cards and automated workflows directly into their platforms, turning financial operations into growth engines.”
It was a year in which “buy, don’t build” became the overriding philosophy, the report added. Research by PYMNTS Intelligence in conjunction with Galileo and WEX spotlighted the way institutions prioritized speed and specialization over ownership, “outsourcing embedded capabilities rather than developing them internally.”
