Drake Star acts as Exclusive Financial Advisor on Sale of SCHUFA's Shares in finAPI to Fabrick

Munich, Wiesbaden, Milan | May 22, 2024 – Open Finance operating company Fabrick today announced the agreement to acquire SCHUFA Holding AG's 75% stake in finAPI GmbH, one of the leading German operators of Open Finance solutions. This highly synergistic transaction supports Fabrick’s execution of its international growth strategy, aimed at bringing innovation to European businesses by enabling new embedded finance service models.

Drake Star Partners acted as the exclusive financial advisor to SCHUFA Holding AG and finAPI in this transaction.

Founded in Munich in 2008 to develop solutions for the aggregation and analysis of financial data, finAPI is a pioneering force across the Open Banking, Data Intelligence, KYC, and Payments services. It serves over 350 clients, including banks, financial service providers, fintech companies, insurance companies, and software providers, not only in Germany, but also in Austria, the Czech Republic, Slovakia, and Hungary.

The acquisition was carried out through an agreement signed with SCHUFA Holding AG, from which Fabrick acquired 75% of finAPI. The other 25% of the shares will remain with the two founders of finAPI, Dr. Florian Haagen and Dr. Martin Lacher, who will both continue to play a role in the unified entity. 

Paolo Zaccardi, CEO of Fabrick, said: “This agreement to acquire finAPI, following the recent capital increase with Mastercard and Gruppo Reale Mutua and the acquisition of JudoPay in the United Kingdom, is another important milestone for Fabrick and proliferates the internationalization strategy defined since our inception. It allows us to enter the DACH Region, an area full of great prospects and key to achieving optimal scale and seizing the growing opportunities offered by the sector in which we operate. This operation is also a further step in expanding our offering, which now covers the entire value chain of Open Finance services.”

Tanja Birkholz, CEO of SCHUFA, added: “Over the past three years, we have worked intensively with the goal of creating the greatest possible value for individuals and businesses. Technology plays an important role in developing customer-oriented products and services, and this requires strong partners capable of focusing on technological development. In this sense, Fabrick represents the ideal partner for the further development of finAPI. We know the needs of our customers, and Fabrick and finAPI possess the technological know-how to meet them, allowing them to benefit from further product developments in the field of Open Banking.” 

Florian Haagen, CEO and Co-founder of finAPI, stated: “The operation with Fabrick, with its European approach, offers great opportunities for all. Together with the German market business, we will continue to actively shape the future of Open Finance in Europe.”

“The combination of finAPI and Fabrick is truly exciting and creates a unique pan-European open finance platform” said Julian Ostertag, Managing Partner at Drake Star Partners. “We are proud to have advised SCHUFA HOLDING AG and finAPI on this milestone transaction which depicts a new proof point for our outstanding expertise and track record within the FinTech and open banking sectors.”

The transaction remains subject to approval by the German and Italian supervisory authorities. finAPI will remain independent and regulated in Germany and will continue its strategic collaboration with SCHUFA for the development of Open Finance in the German market. 

Drake Star Deal team: Julian Ostertag, Sebastian Kimmerl, Pablo Lundershausen, Jan Sergio Ceko, Mathieu Gratzmüller

Inquiries:

For further inquiries, please contact:

Julian Ostertag 

Managing Partner, Member of Global Executive Committee | Drake Star

julian.ostertag@drakestar.com | +49 89 14 90 26 520 

About finAPI

finAPI GmbH is one of Germany's leading open banking providers and is licensed by BaFin as an account information and payment initiation service. The Munich-based company has been developing and implementing excellent software and solutions for the aggregation and analysis of financial data since 2008. The focus is on the product areas of Open Banking, Data Intelligence, KYC, and Payments. Customers include more than 350 companies from a wide range of industries, including banks, financial service providers, fintechs, insurance companies and software providers.

For more information, visit: www.finapi.io.

About Fabrick

Since 2018, Fabrick has served as a focal point for continuous innovation for its clients, including businesses, fintech companies, and banks. Through an open-platform model, Fabrick simplifies the value chain for companies with easily integrable Open Finance solutions. It enables entities of any sector and size to incorporate digital financial services into their offerings with a rapid time to market, allowing them to seize new business opportunities or enhance their customers' experience. Fabrick has formed affiliations with innovative entities such as Codd&Date, Dpixel, Alternative Payment Ltd (JudoPay), Fabrick Solutions Spain S.L. and Fintech District - the international reference community for the industry in Italy, with over 290 associated fintech companies. Fabrick operates internationally, with headquarters in Milan and offices in Biella, Madrid, and Zurich.

For more information, visit: www.fabrick.com.

About SCHUFA

The Schutzgemeinschaft für allgemeine Kreditsicherung - SCHUFA - enables people to fulfil their financial wishes in an uncomplicated, secure and affordable way. We work to ensure that people can do business quickly and easily and that companies can trust them - without knowing them personally. We reduce the risk of non-payment for providers of loans, goods and services, which makes it possible to do more business on good terms. This is how we support growth and prosperity in Germany. SCHUFA is an important part of our economy. We use state-of-the-art technology to analyse and evaluate over 340,000 inquiries every day. This enables us to bring together the wishes of consumers with the security needs of providers. We create credit scores and offer solutions to protect people and companies from identity theft and fraud. We make an important contribution to the prevention of money laundering and help to limit the resulting economic damage. We also provide a platform for the cross-industry exchange of sustainability data. SCHUFA employs around 1,000 people at a total of seven locations and generated around 276 million euros in revenue in the 2023 financial year.

The SCHUFA commitment

SCHUFA has continuously expanded its social commitment in recent years and thus contributes to a transparent financial culture and over-indebtedness prevention in Germany. As an information service provider for businesses and consumers, the focus of many of its projects is on education and data protection. The most important projects at a glance: The annual Risk and Credit Compass sheds light on the consumer competence and credit behaviour of German citizens. The SCHUFA Consumer Advisory Board discusses current consumer issues and develops recommendations for action for SCHUFA. The SCHUFA Ombudswoman acts as a neutral arbitration board for the interests of consumers. With the educational initiatives "WirtschaftsWerkstatt - Take your finances into your own hands" and "SCHUFA goes to school", SCHUFA is committed to educating young people and young adults in financial literacy.

For more information, visit: www.schufa.de.

About Drake Star 

Drake Star is an award-winning global tech investment bank that has completed over 500 transactions since 2003. The Drake Star global team of senior professionals across offices in New York, London, Paris, Munich, San Francisco, Los Angeles, Berlin, and Dubai* focuses on mergers & acquisitions and corporate finance services worldwide in Software/SaaS, Consumer & Retail Technology, Digital Media, FinTech, HR Tech, Mobility & Sustainability, Digital Services, and Industrial Tech sectors.

Drake Star is the marketing name for the global investment bank Drake Star Partners Limited and its subsidiaries and affiliates. In the USA, all securities are transacted through Drake Star Securities LLC. In the USA, Drake Star Securities LLC is regulated by FINRA and is a member of SIPC. Drake Star UK Limited (FRN 942020) is an appointed representative of Razlin Ltd (FRN 730805), which is authorized and regulated by the Financial Conduct Authority. © 2024 Drake Star Partners Limited.

For more information, visit www.drakestar.com. 

*Partner Office