Based out of Berlin, Acatus is a financial services company that offers a debt capital markets platform for banks and other organisations. In the latest development, the German fintech startup has raised €5.5 million in a Series A round led by VCs DIP Capital and coparion.
Additionally, the existing shareholders and business angels also participated in the round. With this round, Acatus has more than €5 million at its disposal to drive further growth.
According to CEO Dr. Marie Louise Seelig, the German startup will benefit from the expertise of new investor DIP Capital, which offers extensive experience in project financing and is strongly represented in the Italian, French, Spanish and UK markets, especially in the field of renewable energies.
Furthermore, Seelig wants to create a strong, neutral, and bank-independent platform to avoid potential conflicts of interest for both originators and investors.
First digital debt capital markets platform
For the uninitiated, Acatus was founded by Dr. Marie Louise Seelig and Dr. Daniel Wigbers in 2016. Notably, this is the first digital debt capital markets platform.
The fintech startup offers a B2B platform, where an organisation can sell debts in the form of bonds to existing or new investors. In this case, assets such as loans or insurance are converted into individual securities and placed directly on the international capital market by Acatus.
Fast and cost-effective refinancing option!
For banks and other originators, this German fintech platform offers a fast and cost-effective refinancing option via the capital market. The startup is backed by renowned investors such as Partech, Berliner Effektengesellschaft AG, and Berliner Volksbank Ventures as well as numerous business angels from the capital market, securities, and tech sectors.
Marie Louise Seelig said:
To maintain the necessary independence and avoid potential conflicts of interest on the originator side, I gave up my leadership position as the founder of CrossLend and decided to establish Acatus with a strong network of experts as a bank-independent digital debt capital markets platform. Against this background, I am particularly pleased that we have brought on board two strong and experienced VCs that will enable us to continue our journey and offer both investors and originators the best service when it comes to capital market access and investments. With our flexible Debt Capital Markets platform, we have created a tool to make loans available to the debt capital market. According to the ECB, there are twelve trillion EUR in loans available in Europe, which shows the extraordinary market potential here. At the same time, we are making the European financial market more flexible and transparent.
Riccardo Cirillo, Founder and Managing Partner of lead investor DIP Capital, is looking forward to the cooperation:
We’re delighted to have taken a leading role in supporting such a motivated team of ambitious entrepreneurs. Acatus has developed rapidly since its foundation, and its skillful team has created a uniquely differentiated Debt Capital Markets platform to overcome the complex securitization process. Acatus’ platform enables its customers to optimize their loan financing processes and investments into an easily tradable and transparent form of securities. This creates added value for all parties involved and at the same time, opens up the opportunities for a new business, which are all necessary features for a well-functioning, fungible, European Debt Capital Market.
Christian Schulte, Investor at coparion, sees great potential in Acatus:
We invest in a small but very experienced and powerful team. The two founders are experienced serial Fintech Entrepreneurs and former Managing Directors of large international commercial banks. Using their experience and their network, they can make a significant contribution to the digitization of the business. It is this perfect mix of expertise and drive, coupled with Acatus’ bank neutrality, that convinced us that this team could create the leading digital European Debt Capital Markets platform. Acatus stands for an innovative idea that can revive the European financial market. The economic potential is enormous.
Acatus is also expanding its network of business angels with additional former bank directors, partners in major international law firms, and management consulting firms.
“The customers’ demand is very high. The financing comes at exactly the right time so that we can respond to market demand with rapid expansion,” explains Acatus COO Dr. Daniel Wigbers.
