(14 December 2017 – Germany) German challenger bank Penta has officially launched a new digital bank account for startups and small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) in its home market.
The new offering runs on top of Banking-as-a-Platform solarisBank. All deposits will be under the custody of solarisBank, which has a pan-EU banking licence.
The service is free to open and free to use. The lender will issue customers a business debit card with an option to issue multiple debit cards to their team.
Penta said that it has more than 3,000 businesses on its waiting list and is adding over 150 businesses per day.
The lender set a target of acquiring more than 10,000 businesses by the end of 2018.
Penta CEO and co-founder Lav Odorovic Odorovic said, “But today, banks are stuck in the 20th century because of their outdated tech and bureaucracy—not to mention the high-fees. We believe that banking should be easy, it should be completely online and it should give startups access to the banking products and services they need to scale quicker, to save more time and money.”
“Startups in Germany with 2-30 employees have been neglected by fintech and the banking industry. We’re trying to change this by helping founders open an account online quickly while offering them the tools they need to scale quicker, save more time and money.”
Penta is funded by a number of senior banking executives from the UK and Germany, including Richard Davies former head of business banking and digital propositions globally at HSBC.