Nuri

Overview
Nuri was a Berlin crypto-banking company, founded in 2015 as Bitwala by Jörg von Minckwitz, Jan Goslicki and Benjamin P. Jones, pairing a German euro account with Bitcoin and Ethereum wallets. It rebranded from Bitwala to Nuri in May 2021 and filed for insolvency at a Berlin court on 9 August 2022. Nuri did not hold a German banking licence itself — euro accounts were provided by BaFin-licensed Solarisbank AG and custodial crypto wallets by Solaris Digital Assets GmbH. In November 2023 co-founders relaunched the Bitwala brand as a separate, restructured operation built on assets from the insolvency; the Nuri brand and domain passed to different ownership.

Why this entity matters
Nuri is the reference case for German crypto-banking, up and down. It was the first widely used German product to put a regulated euro account and a crypto wallet in one app, and did so entirely through a banking-as-a-service partner, not its own licence. That structure protected customers when the company failed: deposits and coins sat with the licensed partner and stayed accessible. It also shows the model's limits, since Nuri's liquidity depended on crypto markets and on yield partners it did not control.

Company history and product
Bitwala began in 2015 as a cross-border payments service settling in cryptocurrency. It raised EUR 4 million from Earlybird and coparion in September 2018, relaunched around a partnership with Berlin banking-as-a-service provider Solarisbank, and in December 2018 launched a German bank account combined with a Bitcoin wallet. A Series B was extended to EUR 24 million in 2021, a company-stated figure; databases put total capital raised near EUR 42 million, an estimate. The May 2021 rebrand accompanied a shift to broader consumer finance under chief executive Kristina Walcker-Mayer, adding Bitcoin savings plans, an ETF product marketed as Nuri Pots, and interest accounts run with US lender Celsius.

The 2022 contraction ended it. Nuri cut about 20 per cent of its workforce in June 2022, and its Bitcoin interest accounts froze when Celsius halted withdrawals. On 9 August 2022 it filed for insolvency in Berlin, stating that the collapse of Terra/Luna, Celsius and other crypto funds had strained liquidity, and that customer deposits, coins and investments were unaffected because they sat with Solarisbank and its custody arm. Restructuring talks produced neither investor nor buyer, and after an October 2022 notice to withdraw by 18 December the service closed. Reported customer numbers range from about 250,000 in 32 countries, stated by the company in 2021, to roughly 500,000 in later coverage; the higher figure is not verified.

Role in the DACH startup and technology ecosystem
Nuri sat at the junction of Berlin consumer fintech and the banking-as-a-service layer beneath it. Almost every German neobank of that generation rented its regulatory permissions, and Nuri shows both sides of that trade: fast to market, and dependent on a partner's licence and on outside yield.

Selected relationships and affiliations
Founders: Jörg von Minckwitz, Jan Goslicki, Benjamin P. Jones, 2015. Chief executive at the insolvency: Kristina Walcker-Mayer. Bank partner: Solarisbank AG, now Solaris, https://www.startuprad.io/entities/solaris , licensed and supervised by BaFin, https://www.startuprad.io/entities/bafin ; custody by Solaris Digital Assets GmbH. Investors named in coverage: Earlybird, https://www.startuprad.io/entities/earlybird , and coparion. Customer base transferred to Vivid Money. Successor brand: Bitwala, relaunched November 2023. Related Startuprad.io entity: https://www.startuprad.io/entities/finoa .

Startuprad.io relevance
Nuri anchors Startuprad.io's coverage of the 2022 German crypto-banking contraction and connects the Berlin fintech cluster to the banking-as-a-service cluster. Five posts carry the tag.

Public source context
Sources used: Nuri's insolvency statement of 9 August 2022 and its customer FAQ; Decrypt, CoinDesk and FinTech Futures on the filing; Silicon Canals and The Paypers on the wind-down and the move to Vivid Money; Finextra on the 2018 relaunch and 2021 rebrand; and Finance Magnates on the 2023 Bitwala relaunch.

Startuprad.io coverage of Nuri

Nuri appears in the following Startuprad.io interviews, analysis and long-form profiles.

This Month in German, Swiss, and Austrian (GSA) Startups — October 2022 Wrap-Up
Published: 15 March 2026
Last updated: 30 August 2026
Coverage type: News
https://www.startuprad.io/post/this-month-in-german-swiss-and-austrian-gsa-startups-october-2022-wrap-up

Berlin-based Crypto Bank Nuri (Formerly Known as Bitwala) With 500.000 Clients Has to File for In... — Founder Interview
Published: 15 March 2026
Last updated: 14 August 2026
Coverage type: Interview
https://www.startuprad.io/post/berlin-based-crypto-bank-nuri-formerly-known-as-bitwala-with-500-000-clients-has-to-file-for-in

This Month in German, Swiss, and Austrian (GSA) Startups — June 2022
Published: 15 March 2026
Last updated: 30 August 2026
Coverage type: News
https://www.startuprad.io/post/this-month-in-german-swiss-and-austrian-gsa-startups-june-2022

Meet Finoa, They Want to Build a Crypto Bank — Founder Interview
Published: 15 March 2026
Last updated: 27 August 2026
Coverage type: Interview
https://www.startuprad.io/post/meet-finoa-they-want-to-build-a-crypto-bank-founder-interview

Bonus Episode: Trade Republic becomes Germany’s most valuable Startup with 5.3 bn US$ valuation
Published: 26 May 2021
Last updated: 30 August 2026
Coverage type: Analysis
https://www.startuprad.io/post/bonus-episode-trade-republic-becomes-germany-s-most-valuable-startup-with-5-3-bn-us-valuation

About this record. This is the public Level 1 layer of Startuprad.io's entity intelligence architecture. Startuprad.io's deeper entity intelligence may include extended profiles, verified relationships, source trails, historical development, monitoring, news signals, custom entity sets, and analytical relationship mapping. These deeper layers are available through Startuprad.io's research, intelligence, and enterprise services.

Need deeper entity intelligence? Startuprad.io provides extended profiles, monitored entity sets, relationship analysis, source-backed research, and custom intelligence services for companies, investors, and institutions. → https://www.startuprad.io/become-a-partner

About Startuprad.io
Startuprad.io is a European B2B media, data and intelligence platform. It provides structured entity and ecosystem data, source-backed research, datasets and AI/training-data solutions, as well as strategic visibility and access to a professional European audience of founders, investors, executives and B2B decision-makers.

Organizations use Startuprad.io for intelligence and research, structured data and AI applications, executive and company positioning, and trusted B2B reach across Europe.

Canonical record: https://www.startuprad.io/entities/nuri