Imfino News

September 6, 2018 - ABN AMRO’s Digital Impact Fund (DIF) is teaming up with Earlybird and solarisBank to invest EUR 14 million in Germany’s CrossLend. The fund has also agreed a strategic partnership with this digital cross-border lending marketplace. The partnership should help improve access to international capital for Dutch companies.

The CrossLend digital platform facilitates investment in European loans while at the same time making available the capital so attracted, immediately and digitally. For investors, the marketplace offers an opportunity to flexibly build a diversified portfolio of loans, with an emphasis on risk transparency. For lenders, CrossLend offers additional possibilities to expand their lending. And this in turn creates more credit opportunities.

Hugo Bongers, Director of the ABN AMRO Digital Impact Fund, comments: “CrossLend is an established player that has found a way to handle Europe’s complex cross-border capital market flows more efficiently. We believe that this solution will set a possible new industry standard. In addition, this investment further broadens and strengthens our local relationships in Germany, being one of the leading FinTech countries in Europe.”

Oliver Schimek, CEO of CrossLend, says these parties are exactly the type of investor they need for further expansion. “Our aim is to make the whole international lending ecosystem more efficient, more transparent and more profitable. And to make sure that we serve both banks and entrepreneurs – a win-win-win.”

ABN AMRO’s DIF is a corporate venture capital fund specifically for fintechs. ABN AMRO uses this fund for its strategic investments in innovative startups and scaleups that digitalise financial products and services. In addition to CrossLend, the fund has six other companies in its portfolio: Dutch player Ockto, Germany’s solarisBank, US FinTechs Cloud Lending Solutions and BehavioSec, Tink in Sweden, and a blockchain initiative in trade and commodity finance.