Berlin-based Smava, a credit comparison platform that offers cheaper loan options to consumers, has raised €57 million from Kreos Capital, along with existing investors Earlybird, Verdane, Vitruvian Partners and Runa Capital. The round includes a mix of capital and growth debt.
The fintech platform offers an overview of 70 loans between €1,000 and €120,000 from over 20 banks and lending partners. Consumers select the loan that suits them and take it out directly. On average, smava borrowers pay about 35 percent less interest than the German national average.
Founded in 2007, the company has raised several rounds of funding, most recently a €65 million Series D over two years ago. After that investment, business growth accelerated: from 2018 to 2019, smava’s brokered loan volume grew by 35 percent from around €2 billion to around €2.7 billion. In a press release, the fintech scale-up says that growth rate is increasing in the first quarter of 2020.
Maintaining this trajectory through an uncertain post-pandemic economy is exactly why the company sought new financing. The package includes €35 million in growth debt from Kreos, who's been working with the startup since 2014, and €22 million in capital from the other investors.
"This enables us to continue our investments in digitalization and other product innovations and to maintain our growth course despite the worst economic crisis of the past decades caused by the corona pandemic,” said Alexander Artopé, CEO and co-founder.
Photo: smava CEO and co-founder Alexander Artopé
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