Solaris

Overview
Solaris (legal name Solaris SE, formerly Solarisbank AG) is a Berlin-headquartered German financial technology company that operates one of Europe's most widely deployed Banking-as-a-Service (BaaS) platforms. It was incorporated in 2016 out of the FinLeap company builder, holds a full German banking licence supervised by BaFin, rebranded from Solarisbank to Solaris and adopted the Societas Europaea (SE) legal form in 2022, and completed a widely reported rescue funding round of approximately €96 million in early 2024 led by SBI Group and existing shareholders.

Why this entity matters
Solaris matters to the DACH fintech ecosystem for four reasons. First, it was the first German fintech to build a full-stack BaaS proposition on its own banking licence at scale, and remains one of the small handful of European BaaS platforms operating under a full national credit-institution licence rather than under an e-money or agent framework. Second, the group's BaaS partner book has provided the licensed rails behind a large share of the visible German neobanking, embedded-finance, card-programme and crypto-adjacent brands over the past decade, making Solaris a systemic infrastructure node in the German consumer fintech landscape. Third, its 2021 acquisition of the UK-based BaaS provider Contis extended the platform's European card-issuing footprint and made it one of the few pan-European BaaS providers with both licensed banking and card-issuing scale. Fourth, the 2023–2024 combination of BaFin regulatory remediation costs, a large-scale credit card programme migration and rising cost-of-risk — followed by the reported rescue funding round of approximately €96 million in early 2024 — has made Solaris the reference case in ongoing DACH ecosystem conversations about the economics, regulatory obligations and capital intensity of the BaaS model.

Company history and product
Solarisbank AG was incorporated in 2016 out of the FinLeap company builder in Berlin, with product development and initial operations dating from 2015. The company received a full German banking licence and operates as a supervised credit institution under BaFin and Deutsche Bundesbank oversight, using that licence to deliver Banking-as-a-Service (BaaS) — licensed banking accounts, cards, e-money, consumer and instalment lending, and compliance infrastructure — to third-party fintechs, platforms and non-bank brands through APIs. In 2021 Solarisbank acquired the UK-based BaaS provider Contis, extending its European card-issuing footprint. In 2022 the group rebranded from Solarisbank to Solaris and adopted the Societas Europaea (SE) legal form, becoming Solaris SE. During 2023 and 2024 the company faced significant operational and financial pressure driven by a combination of BaFin regulatory remediation costs, the migration of a large-scale co-branded credit card programme to its own platform, and rising cost-of-risk in its lending book. In early 2024 Solaris reported a rescue funding round of approximately €96 million led by SBI Group and a consortium of existing shareholders. This is reported as a corporate financing event; it is not a legal action against any individual. Under CEO Carsten Höltkemeyer — who succeeded co-founder Dr. Roland Folz in the previous management transition — the group has continued to operate as a regulated BaaS provider from its Berlin headquarters.

Role in the DACH startup and technology ecosystem
Solaris is one of the most systemically embedded fintech infrastructure companies in the DACH ecosystem. As the licensed banking layer behind a large share of the visible German neobanking, embedded-finance, card-programme and crypto-adjacent brands, it is a de facto reference for the economics and regulatory obligations of the BaaS model in Germany. Its FinLeap origin story anchors it inside the wider Berlin FinTech company-builder cluster, and its BaaS peer set includes Swan (France), Griffin (UK), Modulr (UK) and — in a different segment — the vertically integrated European neobanks. The 2023–2024 stress event and the subsequent rescue funding round have made Solaris the anchor case for DACH ecosystem discussion of how BaaS providers absorb regulatory remediation cost and cost-of-risk shocks, and how European BaaS consolidation may unfold across the second half of the 2020s.

Selected relationships and affiliations
Corporate origin: spun out of the FinLeap company builder in Berlin (operations from 2015, incorporation 2016). Regulatory posture: full German banking licence, supervised by BaFin and Deutsche Bundesbank. Key acquisition: Contis (UK-based BaaS provider, 2021). Brand event: rebrand from Solarisbank to Solaris and adoption of Societas Europaea (SE) legal form in 2022. Financing event: reported rescue funding round of approximately €96 million in early 2024, led by SBI Group and existing shareholders. Current CEO: Carsten Höltkemeyer, who succeeded co-founder Dr. Roland Folz. Sector peer set: Swan (France), Griffin (UK), Modulr (UK), and — within Germany — the vertically integrated neobanks and the small handful of other BaaS providers operating on a German licence. Related Startuprad.io entities: https://www.startuprad.io/entities/deutsche-bank .

Startuprad.io relevance
Solaris is a T1 reference entity for Startuprad.io's DACH FinTech and Banking-as-a-Service clusters. The Startuprad.io Wix tag for Solaris currently returns 8 posts spanning founder-interview coverage from the Solarisbank era, analysis of the 2024 rescue round and the wider DACH fintech reset, and cross-cutting coverage of the German BaaS peer set. Solaris is one of the anchor entities in Startuprad.io's ongoing coverage of BaaS economics, embedded finance and DACH fintech consolidation.

Public source context
This profile draws on Solaris's own corporate website https://www.solarisgroup.com , the English-language Wikipedia entry on Solaris SE, the LinkedIn presence of the company, publicly reported coverage of the 2024 rescue funding round in the international financial press, and Startuprad.io's own coverage archive summarised in the coverage section below. Figures and dates that could not be corroborated across two or more sources are phrased as reported rather than as verified.

Startuprad.io coverage of Solaris

Solaris appears in the following Startuprad.io interviews, analysis, and monthly news coverage.

Solarisbank is Exploring All Options From Fundraising to a Sale to a PE Fund — Founder Interview
Published: 15 March 2026
Last updated: 14 August 2026
Coverage type: Interview
https://www.startuprad.io/post/solarisbank-is-exploring-all-options-from-fundraising-to-a-sale-to-a-pe-fund-founder-interview

ID Now is Looking at Germany's Largest Fintech Exit at 1 bn US$
Published: 15 March 2026
Last updated: 14 August 2026
Coverage type: Interview
https://www.startuprad.io/post/id-now-is-looking-at-germany-s-largest-fintech-exit-at-1-bn-us

DACH Fintech Trends 2020–2025: AI, Embedded Finance, and Regulation Driving the Next Wave
Published: 08 August 2025
Last updated: 14 August 2026
Coverage type: Analysis
https://www.startuprad.io/post/dach-fintech-reviews-2020-2025-ai-embedded-finance-and-regulation-driving-the-next-wave

Navigating Turbulence: Startup Failure Lessons from Solaris and Volocopter
Published: 03 February 2025
Last updated: 14 August 2026
Coverage type: Analysis
https://www.startuprad.io/post/startup-failure-lessons-from-solaris-and-volocopter

Unicorn in Crisis: How a Former Fintech Giant Averted Shutdown
Published: 09 December 2024
Last updated: 14 August 2026
Coverage type: Analysis
https://www.startuprad.io/post/unicorn-in-crisis-how-a-former-fintech-giant-averted-shutdown

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/solaris