Commerzventures, the investment arm of Commerzbank, one of Germany’s largest banks, is no stranger to fintech startups.
Its activity puts most U.S. rivals to shame, and now the Frankfurt-based bank has established its venture funding strategy: invest in late-stage startups, and, if possible, co-lead Series B rounds, like the one it announced today for software-as-a-service banking platform Mambu.
Mambu began as a microfinance platform but soon grew into a full-featured, cloud-based core banking platform. Based in Berlin, Mambu was founded in 2011 and introduced its banking platform in 2013. The newest funding — around $8.7 million — will allow it to expand in Asia and the Americas, CEO Eugene Danilkis said in a press release. This raise dwarfs previous rounds for Mambu, and brings total funding to approximately $10.6 million.
The investment marks the second time Commerzbank has come in at the B round, according to Crunchbase. In the past year, the bank invested in a Series C round for payments platform Marqeta, a Series A round for insurancetech company Safe, a Series B for SME financing startup Iwoca, and an unspecified round for social investment platform eToro. (Obviously, this was a late-stage investment round.) That marks five fintech investments in the past year for the bank. It would be difficult to find a commercial bank that has done more fintech investing in the last year.
Commerzbank’s ties to fintech innovation run even deeper. It is after all the parent company of Lodz, Poland-based mBank, one of the world’s most advanced (and popular) mobile-first bank platforms.
“We see Mambu as the next generation of banking platforms and cloud technology with huge potential to fill a significant need in the market,” said Stefan Tirtey, managing director at CommerzVentures. “Mambu has rapidly evolved to be an industry-leading modern, cloud-based banking system that is opening up new opportunities for digital-first banking and is well-positioned as a disruptive challenger to traditional and legacy banking systems.”
Munich-based Acton Capital Partners also participated in the round.