€10M investment for fintech scaleup Five Degrees: “Top technology is about people”

We all know that the big money circulates in the world of banking. But still, 10 million euro surely is not a modest investment, not even for a fintech startup. Dutch startup Five Degrees just secured this astronomical amount of funding, in order to further developed their BPM solution for digital banking. Five Degrees offers its customer-oriented banking software to retail as well as private banks.

A fertile investment round

A new investment round of Five Degrees resulted in a new shareholder, Karmijn Kapitaal. This investment company distinguishes itself by an explicit focus on diversity, as all three of its founders are women. Some of the companies they invested in so far are media company Tuvalu Media, and upcoming Dutch craft beer brand Jopenbier. However, Karmijn Kapitaal is not the only investor in this round. Already existing shareholders of Five Degrees, 5Square and Velocity Capital, both expanded their stake. Altogether, Five Degrees raised an amount of more than €10 million.

Earlier recognition for Five Degrees

Not only investors have high expectations of Five Degrees. The Dutch startup has also been receiving critical acclaim, as it managed to conquer a place in the FinTech Top50 last April. And things get even better, as world’s leading IT company Gartner is said to have recognized the startup as “one of the potential global leaders in technology for digital banking”. The wide support and recognition sure sound promising. With the investment, Five Degrees wants to implement its growth strategy, and expand beyond the boundaries of Europe.

Why banking software?

What is so unique about this company, that managed to raise such a high investment? Five Degrees positions itself as more than a provider of a technical solution. Their website reads: “Often the problem is not the nature of the technology, but the processes and deployment”. The technology is available, but it is not always easy to integrate it in existing IT-infrastructures of banking systems. Five Degrees’ digital platform Matrix helps banks to find their way in the new generation of digital banking.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qj-mewor-o0

Diversity in fintech?

Although Five Degrees’ Management Team includes one woman (together with three men), one would not directly associate the fintech sector with gender diversity. Therefore, it appears quite remarkable that Karmijn Kapitaal chose a digital banking company to work with. However, Martijn Hohmann, CEO of Five Degrees emphasizes the significance of the corporation with Karmijn Kapitaal: “To us, Karmijn Kapitaal is more than just a new shareholder. Their investment is a sign of trust in our belief that delivering top technology is about people and creating an environment that is about unconventional thinking brought to perfection.”

5square and Velocity Capital

Existing investor 5square that yet again poured money into Five Degrees, has built up stakes in several fastgrowing companies, both tech and non-tech businesses. It serves as an active shareholder in scale-ups like SO WIFI. As a rule of thumb, 5square takes a substantial minority stake and invests between €1 and €10M per company. Dutch investment firm Velocity Capital solely focuses on the vertical FinTech, their portfolio “represents the global game-changers that are reinventing a range of financial services markets”, like online stock brokerage platform BUX.