Start-ups move into offices / Contribution to Hessian State Government’s FinTech initiative
Deutsche Börse: Yesterday evening marked the opening of Deutsche Börse’s FinTech hub in Frankfurt, making it one of the first major companies of the region to support the Hessian State Government’s FinTech initiative to set up a FinTech cluster in Frankfurt. Deutsche Börse aims to promote Germany’s start-up and investment culture.
Four start-ups will be moving into their new Frankfurt offices in the next few days: “Fintura”, a loan rate comparison portal for SMEs, “dwins”, an account switching service, “savedroid”, an automatic money saver app and the “Cashlink Payments” payment system. Three of these FinTech hub companies will therefore also be moving their headquarters to Frankfurt. Additional start-ups will also have the opportunity to book fully-equipped facilities in flexible co-working spaces on a daily basis. Deutsche Börse is initially offering the offices free of charge.
Carsten Kengeter, CEO of Deutsche Börse AG, said: “With our FinTech hub being part of the Hessian State Government’s FinTech initiative, we want to give start-ups in the financial sector a jump start, thereby contributing to the creation and development of a FinTech community within Frankfurt’s financial centre. Frankfurt should become Germany’s leading FinTech centre.“
Hauke Stars, Deutsche Börse Executive Board member responsible for Cash Market, Pre-IPO & Growth Financing, commented: “Promoting innovative business ideas is part of our broad offering, which begins with start-ups and continues with later-stage financing via Deutsche Börse Venture Network, extending through to IPOs and traditional exchange trading. To this end, we will be introducing additional offerings in the future.”
Overall, the new FinTech hub provides around 60 workstations on the 450 m2 site of a former pharmaceutical plant. Conference rooms, a lounge area and a café serve as additional space for creative working, networking and events. Staff of Deutsche Börse Venture Network, the initiative for growth companies launched in 2015, will provide their expertise to the start-ups at the hub.
Alongside the private initiatives, the Hessian State Government’s FinTech initiative aims to create a FinTech start-up centre in the near future to serve as a central point of contact and coordination for the Frankfurt FinTech cluster. It will enable various financial centre participants to play a role, even if they operate their own company-based start-up centres. The cluster is intended to provide working space, but also serve as a centre for events, as a point of contact for visits from foreign delegations and for investor roadshows. Deutsche Börse will also support this project.
