A Zurich-based Swiss financial technology (fintech) firm, additiv, has today raised CHF21m Swiss Francs ($21.3m) in capital from core investors including BZ Bank, acting on behalf of its clients, and the investment vehicle Patinex.
Patinex is headed up by Martin Ebner, a Swiss investor worth $2.8 billion according to Forbes, who has significant stakes in core banking technology vendors, Avaloq and Temenos.
Additiv provides systems to help with the digitalization of banks, asset managers and insurers. As such it is a longer established fintech firm - the sector existed before it was a hashtag - that works with banks, such as RBS, in order to offer it 'white label' solutions that the financial institution (FI) can use as if they had developed it themselves. This enables FIs to compete with newer, more nimble fintech start-up firms that may want to displace banks, wealth managers, insurers or other incumbent financial services providers.
Additiv's key software product is the Digital Finance Suite (DFS). It has offices in Switzerland, Hong Kong and Singapore, as well as an international network of reselling partners and customers around the world.
This is the first capital investment round secured by the company which was founded in 1998 and has latterly focused on providing robo-advisor services to FIs, which face a possible fintech displacement threat from newcomers such as Nutmeg.
Robo-advisors are online, automated portfolio management services that use artificial intelligence (AI) and computer algorithms to manage client investments at a fraction of the cost of a human financial advisor. They are accessible via mobile phones, tablets or the web.
NatWest's new robo-advice offering for the UK savings and investments market uses additiv's Digital Finance Suite (DFS) as its background operating platform. Coutts, also part of the RBS Group, is another white labeled client.
Commenting on the investment in a statement, Michael Stemmle, founder and CEO of additiv, said: "This funding will finance our international expansion and help strengthen our management team. It will also fuel our production of cutting edge cloud computing-based Software-as-a-Service (SaaS) products that can ensure our clients are ahead of the curve. It really is crunch time for the sector and this funding allows us to be at our best when our clients need us most."
The London, U.K., headquartered merger and acquisition (M&A) firm, Zelig Associates, facilitated Patinex's involvement in the capital fundraising.