What Solaris SE does

Solaris SE is a Berlin-headquartered Banking-as-a-Service (BaaS) platform founded in 2015 that holds a full German banking license (Vollbanklizenz), enabling it to operate across the entire European Economic Area. The company provides a cloud-native, API-based technology stack that allows businesses—including SaaS providers, fintechs, mobility platforms, travel companies, and large non-financial corporations—to embed compliant financial services into their own products under a B2B2X (neutral infrastructure) model. Its product surface spans white-label digital banking (accounts with local or virtual IBANs), KYC and KYB identification, branded debit, prepaid, and credit card issuance, SEPA payment sending and acceptance (including SEPA Instant and Batch Payments), and consumer lending including BNPL (Splitpay). The platform is composed of 400+ RESTful API endpoints, a Data Mesh architecture for decision-making and regulatory compliance, and certified security (PCI DSS 4.0, ISO 27001, SWIFT, DORA, EU AI Act, GDPR). Noted enterprise customers include ADAC, Samsung, Bitpanda, Tomorrow (100,000+ end customers), and Boerse Stuttgart Group.

Solaris operates a B2B quote-based revenue model combining subscription fees for platform access with transaction-based fees on payments, card issuance, KYC, and lending services. Distribution is hybrid: direct enterprise sales for large strategic accounts, API self-serve and sandbox onboarding (xs2a-portal.solaris-sandbox.de) for smaller developers, and an embedded/white-label partner model. The company employs 400+ people across 44 locations and more than 60 nationalities, with offices in Berlin, Paris, Milan, and Madrid. Since 2015, Solaris has raised over EUR 530 million from a mix of strategic and financial investors including BBVA, Visa, ABN AMRO, Samsung Catalyst Fund, Lakestar, Yabeo, Global Brain, Holtzbrinck, CNP, Vulcan, Boerse Stuttgart Group, and—most recently in February 2025—SBI Group, which became the majority shareholder via a EUR 140 million Series G round.

Solaris is currently in a strategic transformation phase. In September 2024, it discontinued major parts of its EMI business (formerly Contis, with a EUR 123 million write-down contributing to EUR 178 million in 2023 losses), executed a workforce reduction of approximately 20%, and replaced its CEO and CRO in December 2025 with executives from flatexDEGIRO. In March 2026, the company announced a strategic pivot to become "Europe's first AI-native bank," with AI agents taking over operational processes while maintaining human governance, and a focus on accelerating the path to profitability. AI-driven AML systems have already been deployed to resolve prior BaFin regulatory challenges, and the core payment ledger was migrated to ACI Worldwide's ACI Connetic cloud-native platform in September 2025.

Name

Solaris SE

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 with a full German banking license, enabling European businesses to embed compliant accounts, cards, payments, lending, and KYC services via APIs under a neutral B2B2X model.

Ownership category

akta.pro rank

Product category

Banking-as-a-Service Platform

NAICS

Commercial Banking (522110), Credit Card Issuing (52221)

SIC

Commercial Banks, Nec (6029)

akta.pro primary industry

BaaS Platforms & Sponsor Bank Enablement (FSAGALAA)

akta.pro secondary industries

Risk, Compliance & Controls for Embedded Finance (KYB/KYC/AML, Fraud, Disputes) (FSAGALAK), Embedded Card Issuing & Card-as-a-Service (FSAGALAC)

Keywords

• Banking-as-a-service platform
• Embedded finance APIs
• Digital banking infrastructure
• Payment processing services
• Card issuing platform

Headquarters

HQ city

Berlin

HQ country

Germany

HQ region

Europe

Offices4 records

Markets served

GTM type

B2B

Offering type

Software

Cost components

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

Revenue model

1. Banking-as-a-Service Platform Fees: Solaris charges partners for access to its licensed banking infrastructure, APIs, and modular financial services. Revenue derived from licensing the BaaS platform to businesses wanting to embed financial products.
2. Payment Processing and Transaction Fees: Revenue from processing payments including SEPA transfers, direct debits, card transactions, and instant payments through the platform.
3. Card Issuing Services: Revenue generated from issuing physical and virtual debit, prepaid, and credit cards for partners' customers.
4. KYC/KYB Identification Services: Revenue from providing digital identity verification and business identification services to partners.
5. Lending and Credit Services: Revenue from consumer lending products including overdrafts, installment loans (Splitpay/BNPL), and fully digital consumer loans.

Pricing tiers

Go-to-market motion3 records

Distribution channels4 records

Marketing channels8 records

Core offering

Solaris SE operates a Banking-as-a-Service (BaaS) platform backed by a full German banking license, enabling businesses to embed compliant digital banking services — including accounts, debit/prepaid/credit cards, SEPA payments, consumer lending, BNPL, and KYC/KYB identification — directly into their products via RESTful APIs. The platform handles all regulatory complexity (BaFin, PSD2, AML, GDPR, DORA) so partners can launch white-label financial products across the European Economic Area without obtaining their own banking license.

Product overview

Solaris SE is a German Banking-as-a-Service (BaaS) platform with a full banking license, enabling businesses to embed compliant digital banking services into their products via APIs. The platform operates a modular architecture combining core banking services with specialized add-on modules. Core offerings include Digital Banking (accounts, IBANs), Identification (KYC/KYB platforms), Cards (debit, prepaid, credit), Payments (send/receive), and Lending (consumer loans, BNPL Splitpay). The platform is cloud-based with RESTful APIs designed for scalability and international expansion across Europe. In 2026, Solaris announced its transformation into Europe's first AI-native bank, integrating artificial intelligence to automate core operations.

Differentiator

Problem solved

Functional benefit

Brands

• Bankident Plus: Enhanced identification solution that verifies a customer's identity and opens a bank account in one seamless flow, combining Qualified Electronic Signature with reference transfer.
• Bankident

Products and services

• Digital Banking Provides checking, savings, sub-accounts or multi-accounts on partner brands. Supports consumers, freelancers, and businesses with local or virtual IBANs.
• Accounts Secure white-label bank accounts enabling businesses to offer branded banking services to their customers.
• Know-Your-Customer Platform Consumer identification enabling fully digital, secure, and compliant KYC flows for onboarding individuals and freelancers.
• Know-Your-Business Platform Secure business identification enabling verification of business entities for KYB compliance requirements.
• Bankident Plus Enhanced identification solution that verifies a customer's identity and opens a bank account in one seamless flow, combining Qualified Electronic Signature with reference transfer. Meets German AML requirements.
• Cards Branched credit, debit and prepaid card issuance and management. Supports physical or virtual cards for any customer segment.
• Debit Cards Debit cards in partner branding enabling customers to make payments and withdrawals with real-time account access.
• Prepaid Cards Prepaid cards in partner branding for customers who want controlled spending or do not qualify for credit.
• Credit Cards Credit card issuance empowering partners to offer credit facilities to their customers under their own brand.
• Send Payments Payment sending services enabling customers to transfer funds fast, securely and at scale via SEPA Credit Transfer, SEPA Direct Debit, SEPA Instant or Batch Payments.
• Accept Payments Payment acceptance services enabling businesses to receive predictable, fast cross-border payments.
• Consumer Lending Fully digital consumer loan offerings enabling paperless, fast mobile lending options under partner branding.
• BNPL - Splitpay Buy Now Pay Later solution offering fixed payments or flexible installments for customers of partner brands.

Quantifiable outcome

• Successfully migrated ADAC credit card portfolio (landmark program) to Solaris platform in September 2024
• +3 more outcomes

Named customers5 records

Segments6 records

Ideal customer profiles5 records

Technology focussed Yes

API detail

Has API

Yes

API docs

API detail

Core technology

AI maturity

App detail

AI capability3 records

Feature7 records

Partnerships

Four partnerships are on record, tiered core and major.

• ACI WorldwidecoreTechnology or Integration · 29 September 2025Solaris selected ACI Connetic cloud-native payments platform to consolidate all SEPA Instant payments. This partnership modernizes Solaris's instant payments infrastructure, enabling faster SEPA transfers and improved payment capabilities. ACI Connetic integrates account-to-account payments, card processing, and AI-powered fraud prevention.
• ADACcoreOEM/ Whitelabel/ Licensing Partner · 1 September 2024ADAC, Germany's largest automobile club, migrated its landmark credit card program to Solaris platform in September 2024. One of Solaris's most significant card portfolio migrations, demonstrating platform scalability.
• BitpandamajorTechnology or Integration · 31 July 2024Bitpanda, Europe's leading crypto platform, selected Solaris KYC platform for full digital and scalable customer identity verification. Partnership enables Bitpanda to meet compliance requirements with automated KYC processes.
• TomorrowmajorOEM/ Whitelabel/ Licensing PartnerTomorrow, German sustainable mobile banking provider, has partnered with Solaris since 2018. Solaris provides current accounts, savings accounts, overdrafts, and debit cards. Partnership has grown to serve over 100,000 customers.

Scale indicators11 records

Recent moves7 records

Expansion highlights7 records

Direct peers

• Marqeta: Marqeta is a card-issuing and modern payments platform offering API-first card issuance and money movement to fintechs and brands, comparable to the cards and payments modules of Solaris's stack.
• Banking Circle: Banking Circle is a European licensed payments bank offering banking-as-a-service infrastructure (accounts, payments, FX, lending) to fintechs and corporates, directly competing with Solaris's licensed B2B2X model.
• Lemonway: Lemonway is a European payment institution offering payment and account infrastructure to marketplaces, fintechs, and crowdfunding platforms, overlapping with Solaris's regulated payment and account services.
• Swan: Swan is a European Banking-as-a-Service provider with regulated banking partners offering accounts, cards, and payments via APIs to fintechs and corporates, directly comparable to Solaris's modular BaaS platform.
• ClearBank: ClearBank is a UK-regulated clearing bank that provides embedded banking infrastructure (accounts, real-time payments, agency banking) to fintechs and banks, overlapping directly with Solaris's licensed BaaS offering.
• Treezor: Treezor, a French payment institution owned by Société Générale, provides BaaS infrastructure (accounts, cards, KYC, payments) to fintechs in Europe, making it a direct functional peer to Solaris.
• Unit: Unit is a US-based embedded finance platform offering APIs for accounts, cards, lending, and treasury to software companies, directly comparable to Solaris in product breadth and target customer (SaaS, fintechs).

Broad incumbents

• Stripe (Treasury and Connect): Stripe Connect and Stripe Treasury provide embedded finance rails (accounts, cards, payouts) to platforms and marketplaces, competing with Solaris at the partner end of B2B2X while also being a broad incumbent in payments.
• Adyen: Adyen is a global payments incumbent providing unified acquiring, issuing, and banking-like infrastructure to large platforms and enterprises; it competes with Solaris at the high end of embedded payments and card services.

Others

• Mambu: Mambu is a SaaS core banking platform enabling banks and fintechs to compose lending, deposit, and account products; it is an ecosystem/complementary technology layer rather than a licensed BaaS provider like Solaris, but is often paired in the same stack.

Market position

Strengths4 records

Weaknesses5 records

Competitive moat5 records

Key risks6 records

Key highlights6 records

Customer concentration

• Instagraminstagram.com/lifeatsolaris
• LinkedInlinkedin.com/company/solariscompany

Compliance8 records

Revenue estimate

Valuation estimate

Number of profiles

Profiles10 records

Subsidiaries1 record

Funding overview

Funding rounds

Investors

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

M&A

Investments

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

Frequently asked questions about Solaris SE