Martin Granig

Overview

Martin Granig is an Austrian fintech founder and the co-founder and chief executive officer of Monkee, a Tyrol-based savings app that describes its model as Save Now, Pay Later. Monkee helps users reach savings goals in small steps and links saving to retail cashback offers. Granig is an engineer by training who, according to a Startuprad.io interview, previously spent more than a decade at Swarovski and led its global innovation department before founding Monkee.

Why this entity matters

Granig is one of the better-known fintech founders from Austria's Tyrol region, a region more often associated with tourism and manufacturing than with financial technology. His company positions itself as a responsible alternative to buy-now-pay-later credit and has drawn attention for a user base that is predominantly female, an unusual profile in consumer fintech. His background in corporate innovation and in behavioural savings research makes him a useful reference for how habit-forming product design is applied to personal finance in the DACH market.

Career, company, or institutional background

The Startuprad.io founder interview, first published in September 2021, introduces Granig as an engineer by training who worked more than ten years at Swarovski, most recently leading the global innovation department, and who was pursuing a doctorate on savings behaviour at the time. The Swarovski and doctorate details come from that interview and were not corroborated by a second source in this research pass. MCI Innsbruck's alumni profile https://www.mci.edu/en/alumni/success-stories-en/241-business-management/155-diploma-business-management/5601-martin-granig confirms that he completed the part-time Business and Management for Professionals programme there while employed, that he moved into a new area of his corporation after graduating, and that he is founder and CEO of Monkee GmbH.

Monkee, based in Tyrol, Austria, was co-founded by Granig together with Christian Schneider and Jean-Yves Bitterlich according to a Brutkasten report https://brutkasten.com/artikel/monkee-tiroler-spar-app-erhaelt-15-millionen-euro-investment on a July 2022 funding round of 1.5 million euros led by the European Super Angels Club, with further backing from Startup Wise Guys and business angels plus a grant from the Austrian research funding agency FFG. A PAIR Finance interview https://pairfinance.com/en/blog/monkee-ceo-martin-granig-about-save-now-pay-later/ describes the app's weekly savings challenges, an Autopilot feature, cashback partnerships called Future Boost and a Visa-based payment card, with roughly 400 retail partners in Germany and Austria and around 85 percent female users. Partner and user figures change over time and are taken from those outlets without independent verification.

Role in the ecosystem

Within the DACH ecosystem Granig leads a consumer fintech from outside the usual Berlin, Munich and Zurich hubs. In the 2021 interview he said Monkee combined his interests in finance and habit-forming technology, used small nudges to support people who already want to save, and reported that 84 percent of active clients were women. The same interview noted that Monkee was raising a new venture round with a planned close at the end of 2021. These remarks are the founder's own at the time and describe the company's positioning rather than verified outcomes.

Selected relationships and affiliations

Granig is publicly associated with Monkee, which is catalogued as a separate Startuprad.io entity (monkee). Reported Monkee co-founders are Christian Schneider and Jean-Yves Bitterlich (Brutkasten), and reported backers include the European Super Angels Club and Startup Wise Guys; these relationships belong to the company and are listed only as context. The Startuprad.io interview also notes affiliate partnerships of the show itself, which are not a relationship of Granig. No other roles, boards or advisory positions were identified in the sources reviewed.

Startuprad.io relevance

Startuprad.io interviewed Granig about Monkee in September 2021 and published the conversation as an exclusive audio and video interview. The interview was later migrated from Startuprad.io's earlier Medium publication into the current blog, so two posts on the same interview exist on the site. Both are listed below and both were refreshed in September 2026.

Public source context

This record draws on Startuprad.io's own interview posts, an MCI Innsbruck alumni profile, a Brutkasten funding report and a PAIR Finance interview, together with Granig's public LinkedIn profile as linked in Startuprad.io's show notes. Employment history at Swarovski and doctoral studies rest on the Startuprad.io interview only and are hedged accordingly. Monkee's current funding status, user numbers and partner counts were not independently verified and may have changed since the cited reports. Private-life information was not collected and is not included.

Startuprad.io coverage

Meet Austria-Based Monkee — A Fintech With More Than 80% Women as Clients — Founder Interview
Published: 15 March 2026
Last updated: 20 September 2026
Coverage type: Interview
https://www.startuprad.io/post/meet-austria-based-monkee-a-fintech-with-more-than-80-women-as-clients-founder-interview

Meet Austria-Based Monkee — A Fintech With More Than 80% Women as Clients [EXCLUSIVE]
Published: 16 September 2021
Last updated: 20 September 2026
Coverage type: Interview
https://www.startuprad.io/post/meet-austria-based-monkee-a-fintech-with-more-than-80-women-as-clients-exclusive

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