German FinTech Raisin Eyes US Expansion

FinTech

German FinTech company Raisin, an investment and savings marketplace, is looking to expand its business into the U.S., according to a report by Reuters.

The company, which is backed by PayPal, wants to attract customers with higher-yielding deposits from its various banking partners.

The firm was founded in Berlin in 2013, and it has brokered 13 billion euros ($14.5 billion) in deposits for German banks like Commerzbank and N26.

The company also started an investment fund endeavor with Vanguard. Raisin has tapped Paul Knodel, formerly of Citigroup and Merrill Lynch, to spearhead the American launch.

To date, Raisin has raised about $200 million in funding from its investors, and the company recently purchased a German bank.

Raisin isn’t the only company PayPal has invested in throughout the last few years.

In March, PayPal agreed to make a $750 million investment in MercadoLibre, a Latin America eCommerce tech company.

“We look forward to accelerating our leadership in eCommerce and payments and foster financial inclusion in Latin America as a result of our alliance with a global leader in the industry such as PayPal,” Marcos Galperin, CEO of Mercado Libre, said at the time.  

And Uber, prior to its initial public offering (IPO), also reportedly got a $500 million investment from the payment giant.

In reference to the PayPal-related activity, PayPal President and CEO Dan Schulman said in a LinkedIn post that, along with the aforementioned $500 million private investment, “since 2013 we have supported Uber’s payments capabilities as their lead payment processing partner in the U.S. and Australia. Today, I am thrilled to announce that we have reached an agreement to extend our global partnership with Uber and intend to explore future commercial payment collaborations, including the development of Uber’s digital wallet.”

PayPal was getting the shares at the IPO price, and the company was already a payment processor for Uber in the U.S. and in other countries around the globe.