The fintech Fino Digital, founded in Kassel in 2015, is one of the quieter players in the industry. However the start-up, with its core competency in data analytics, is one of the pioneers of digital account switching and has firmly established itself as a B2B service provider for data-based business models.

„We have been an open banking provider from the very beginning," Aleksandar Jeremic, Managing Director at Fino Digital, said in an interview with Börzen-Zeitung. „Digital account switching is one of the few open banking products that are already accepted by customers. We offer this as a white label solution to all sectors of the German banking industry.“

The division bundles AI-based account analysis and open banking solutions. In addition to account and data analysis, Fino also serves the areas of tax, regulatory and document management.

Like many start-ups, Fino initially operated in an unregulated environment. Since 2019, the company has been BaFin-certified as part of the regulation that emerged at that time. „The Fino founders recognized early on that there is an enormous treasure trove of data in document management for contracts – and we can leverage this to create added value for customers,“ says Jeremic.

Jeremic joined Fino Digital in 2020. He previously worked for Commerzbank in the strategy/transformation department. Over the years, Fino has cumulatively analysed more than 240 million transactions, and around 1,000 banks and partners are supplied with data services.

What adds to the Fino story is that the fintech has been cash flow positive since it was founded, and has therefore never had to raise venture capital. A freedom that most start-ups lack. „With Fino Digital and the first account switching product, we immediately earned money and then reinvested it in new products. And we are proud of having achieved all of this without any outside capital,“ says Jeremic.

According to Jeremic, last year Fino Digital had sales of around 30 million euros in its most important regions of Germany, Austria and Switzerland. The open banking services accounted for around 5 million euros of this.

Acquisitions are unlikely to be an option for Fino. According to Jemeric, the company wants to keep the setup simple. This offers the freedom to try out exciting things, while being extremely stringent in their approach. It must be clear that a new product will deliver profit margins after three months, says Jeremic. „If that is not the case, then there is no market for this product.“

Instead of making acquisitions, Fino prefers to grow through partnerships. For example, the company cooperates with Datev to optimise data collection for property taxes. In May, Fino Digital entered into a cooperation with Guidecom to offer AI-based data solutions to savings banks. This is intended to improve local financial advice in corporate customer business.

AI has been used in the financial sector for a long time. Still, the maturity of the technology has only recently become known to the general public through OpenAI's ChatGPT products, says Jeremic. „We have now set up a new test field, which includes two AI systems and where one AI checks the other. We have a lot of fun with such developments, and something economically useful comes out of them.“