Solaris

What Solaris does

Solaris SE (formerly Solarisbank) is a Berlin-headquartered Banking-as-a-Service platform founded in 2015 that operates under a full German banking license (CRR-compliant) with EU passporting rights across 30 EEA countries. The company enables non-bank businesses to embed compliant digital financial services — accounts, cards, payments, lending, and identity verification — into their own products via RESTful APIs, without acquiring a banking license of their own. Its modular platform includes five configurable account types with local IBANs in Germany, Italy, and France; debit, prepaid, and credit card programs on Mastercard and Visa networks with Apple/Google/Samsung wallet tokenization; SEPA Credit Transfer, SEPA Direct Debit, and SEPA Instant payments; a multi-method KYC/KYB stack (Bankident, Bankident Plus, Videoident, eID, Fotoident, PostIdent); consumer lending and BNPL (Splitpay); and a Data Mesh Architecture supporting decisioning and compliance. The technology foundation runs on AWS, with payment infrastructure migrated to ACI Connetic's cloud-native ledger to address prior BaFin regulatory scrutiny.

Solaris serves 100+ partner companies across SaaS providers (HR tech, cloud accounting, ERP), wealth and financial services, travel, mobility, and digital assets — including Samsung, ADAC, Tomorrow, Bitpanda, Coinbase Germany, Lexware, and Spendit. Its go-to-market combines an API-first self-serve developer portal with consultative B2B enterprise sales and white-label/OEM embedded distribution (B2B2X), positioning Solaris as a regulated infrastructure layer that never competes with partners for end customers. Revenue streams span platform setup fees (€10,000–50,000) plus ongoing revenue sharing, recurring embedded-banking service fees, card interchange and processing, and interest income from consumer loans and BNPL.

In February 2025, following prior financial distress, Japanese conglomerate SBI Holdings became majority shareholder via a €140M Series G rescue round, supplementing prior cumulative funding of approximately €654M (Series D €190M in 2021 including the Contis acquisition, Series F €38M in 2023). Under new CEO Steffen Jentsch, Solaris has repositioned as "Europe's first AI-native bank," cutting approximately 20% of headcount (~80 jobs), discontinuing major parts of its EMI business, phasing out the Contis retail brand, and refocusing on premium corporate banking and digital asset infrastructure — supported by a $650M Convertible Senior Notes offering in October 2025 and a 79% Q1 2026 EBITDA improvement.

Name

Solaris

Legal name

Solaris SE

Website

https://solarisgroup.com

Company type

Private

Founded year

2015

Operating status

Operating

Headcount range

251–500 employees

Short description

Solaris SE is a Berlin-based Banking-as-a-Service platform operating under a full German banking license that enables businesses across Europe to embed compliant accounts, cards, payments, lending, and KYC services via APIs under their own brands.

Ownership category

akta.pro rank

Headquarters

HQ city

Berlin

HQ country

Germany

HQ region

Europe

Offices1 record

Markets served

GTM type

B2B

Offering type

Software

Cost components

Personnel, Technology or R&D, Operations, Infrastructure, Marketing or Sales, Others

Revenue model

1. BaaS Platform Partnership Fees: Setup fees (€10,000-50,000 range) plus ongoing revenue sharing with partners who use Solaris as their embedded finance infrastructure. Partners pay platform fees plus per-transaction revenue split rather than acquiring independent banking licenses (€5-15M upfront).
2. Embedded Banking Services: Recurring revenue from partners for accounts, cards (prepaid, debit, credit), payments processing (SEPA Credit Transfer, SEPA Direct Debit, SEPA Instant), consumer lending, BNPL (Splitpay), and KYC/KYB services. White-label fee structure.
3. Card Issuing and Transaction Processing: Revenue from issuance and processing of branded debit, prepaid, and credit cards on Mastercard and Visa networks. Includes interchange fees and transaction processing revenue.
4. Lending Revenue (Consumer Loans and Overdrafts): Interest income from consumer loans, BNPL products (Splitpay), and overdraft facilities issued through the embedded finance platform.

Pricing tiers

Go-to-market motion4 records

Distribution channels5 records

Core offering

Solaris operates a Banking-as-a-Service (BaaS) platform built on a full German banking license (CRR-compliant) with EU passporting across 30 EEA countries. Through a unified set of RESTful APIs, the platform enables partner businesses to embed compliant digital banking services—accounts, debit/prepaid/credit cards, SEPA payments, consumer lending, BNPL (Splitpay), and KYC/KYB onboarding—under their own brand without acquiring their own banking license.

Product overview

Solaris (Solaris SE) operates Europe's leading Banking-as-a-Service (BaaS) platform, built on a single unified API layer that sits atop a full CRR-licensed German banking infrastructure with EU passporting across 30+ EEA countries. The offering follows a platform-plus-modules architecture: the core Digital Banking Platform orchestrates modular products including Accounts (checking, savings, wallets, multi-accounts, sub-accounts), a KYC Platform with the Bankident Plus / Bankident / Videoident / eID / Fotoident / PostIdent add-on methods, a KYB Platform for business onboarding, Cards (Debit Cards, Prepaid Cards, Credit Cards on Mastercard and Visa with Apple/Google/Samsung wallet tokenization), Payments (SEPA Credit Transfer, SEPA Direct Debit, SEPA Instant, TARGET-2, Verification of Payee), Consumer Lending and BNPL (Splitpay). Underpinning all modules are shared capabilities such as the Billing Engine, Dynamic Product Catalog, Data Mesh Architecture, AI-driven real-time fraud detection and risk management, 3D Secure, and PSD2 XS2A APIs. In 2025–2026, the platform was re-anchored around an "AI-native bank" strategy supported by SBI Group's majority ownership and a migration of the payment ledger to ACI Connetic cloud infrastructure.

Differentiator

Problem solved

Functional benefit

Brands

• Bankident Plus: Digital KYC solution combining customer identity verification with bank account activation into a single automated process for AML-compliant onboarding.
• Bankident

Products and services

• Digital Banking Platform

Quantifiable outcome

• 100+ partner companies served via BaaS platform
• +5 more outcomes

Named customers11 records

Segments6 records

Ideal customer profiles3 records

Technology focussed Yes

API detail

Has API

Yes

API docs

API detail

Core technology

AI maturity

App detail

Integration10 records

AI capability11 records

Feature7 records

Partnerships

Seven partnerships are on record, tiered core and minor.

• ACI WorldwidecoreTechnology or IntegrationSolaris selected ACI Connetic to future-proof its payments infrastructure. Migration to ACI Connetic cloud-native payment platform enables faster SEPA transfers and supports instant payments. Announced September 29, 2025. The partnership helps Solaris resolve prior regulatory challenges with BaFin by migrating payment ledger to modern cloud infrastructure.
• MastercardcoreStrategic or Co-development PartnerMastercard and Solarisbank partner for digital banking push announced June 22, 2025. Mastercard provides card network and acceptance for Solaris-issued cards. Solaris issues cards on Mastercard network for partners across debit, prepaid, and credit products.
• VisacoreStrategic or Co-development PartnerSolaris issues debit, prepaid, and credit cards on the Visa network. Powers Tomorrow's sustainable Visa debit cards and Lexware's Visa debit cards for German SMEs.
• IDnowcoreTechnology or IntegrationIDnow is a vetted third-party KYC provider powering Solaris' Videoident and eID verification methods. Provides full German AML compliance for lending, credit, and regulated use cases.
• FinLeapcoreStrategic or Co-development PartnerCo-developed 'Banking as a Platform' offering with Solaris. Founded by Ramin Niroumand (co-founder of FinLeap). Joint venture style partnership building BaaS infrastructure.
• AWS (Amazon Web Services)coreTechnology or IntegrationSolaris is an AWS Partner with cloud-based banking infrastructure. Entire banking infrastructure runs on the cloud, supporting scalability and innovation.
• NetguruminorImplementation/ SI/ Consulting PartnerImplementation and consulting partner helping deploy Solaris-powered banking solutions. Project work covers SEPA payment processing, mobile banking app redesigns, KYC infrastructure, and AI-powered invoice management.

Scale indicators11 records

Recent moves9 records

Expansion highlights6 records

Direct peers

• ClearBank: UK-based BaaS platform with a UK banking license offering embedded accounts, payments, and clearing services to fintechs and corporates across Europe. Directly competes with Solaris in the European embedded finance space with comparable regulatory license-driven model.
• Treezor: French BaaS provider owned by Société Générale, offering payment accounts, KYC, and card issuance to fintechs across Europe. Direct competitor in the European BaaS market with overlapping customer segments and product modules.
• Modulr: UK-based payments and BaaS platform authorized by the FCA, providing embedded accounts, payments, and Open Banking APIs to fintechs and corporates. Comparable to Solaris in target customers, license-based model, and pan-European expansion ambitions.
• Railsr (formerly Railsbank): UK/EU embedded finance platform offering cards, accounts, and compliance infrastructure via API. Direct BaaS competitor focused on European markets with similar product breadth and partner-led GTM model.
• OpenPayd: London-based BaaS provider offering multi-currency accounts, FX, payments, and embedded finance infrastructure across the EEA. Direct peer competing for the same European fintech and corporate partner base.

Broad incumbents

• Marqeta: US-listed modern card issuing platform powering debit, prepaid, and credit card programs via API. Overlaps with Solaris's Cards product line and B2B2X model but operates at much larger scale and is not a licensed bank itself.
• Stripe (Stripe Connect / Stripe Issuing): Global payments infrastructure giant offering Connect (marketplace/platform payments) and Issuing (card issuing) as embedded finance products. Competes with Solaris for SaaS and platform partners seeking embedded financial services at global scale.
• Galileo Financial Technologies (SoFi): Payment processing and card-issuing platform owned by SoFi, providing API-based infrastructure to fintechs and banks. Comparable to Solaris's payments and cards modules, with much broader US-centric scale.
• Starling Bank: UK challenger bank with proprietary banking license and BaaS offering (Starling Platform) for embedded accounts and payments. Comparable regulatory asset and product surface to Solaris, with stronger UK retail presence.

Others

• Plaid: Global Open Banking and financial data connectivity platform powering account verification, KYC data enrichment, and payment initiation for fintechs. Adjacent to Solaris's KYC and payments capabilities, often used complementarily rather than as a direct competitor.

Market position

Strengths5 records

Weaknesses5 records

Competitive moat5 records

Key risks6 records

Key highlights6 records

Customer concentration

• LinkedInlinkedin.com/company/solarisbank
• Xx.com/solarisbank
• Facebookfacebook.com/solarisBankAG

Compliance5 records

Revenue estimate

Valuation estimate

Number of profiles

Profiles12 records

Subsidiaries1 record

Funding overview

Funding rounds9 records

Investors25 records

Funding detail is available on the Subscription and Enterprise plan.Contact sales →

M&A1 record

Investments

M&A and investment is available on the Subscription and Enterprise plan.Contact sales →

Frequently asked questions about Solaris