Financial technology startup Solarisbank AG today said that it has closed a $224 million funding round at a $1.65 billion valuation and announced plans to acquire a competing startup called Contis Group Ltd.

The $1.65 billion valuation means Solarisbank is now valued at more than four times what it was worth last June. One likely factor behind the significant valuation jump is the startup’s rapid growth. On the occasion of the funding round, Solarisbank disclosed to TechCrunch today that revenue has been increasing at a rate of 40% to 60% a year and is expected to reach “hundreds of millions of euros” after the acquisition of Contis closes.

Berlin-based Solarisbank provides a collection of cloud services that can be used to build financial applications such as digital wallets. Some of the services offered by the startup enable companies to issue customized payment cards to their users and provide the option to pay for purchases in multiple installments. Another set of tools makes it possible to set up consumer bank accounts, complete with features such as transaction notifications.

Solarisbank also offers services for building financial applications that target businesses rather than consumers. According to the startup, it provides software that can make it easier for companies such as banking startups to issue loans to small and midsized businesses. Similarly, e-commerce marketplace operators can use Solarisbank’s technology to provide loans to merchants operating on their platforms as a way of supporting their growth.

Solarisbank provides its services via application programming interfaces. This makes it relatively simple from a software development standpoint for companies to integrate them into financial applications they’re building. Samsung Electronics Co. Ltd. and American Express Co. are some of the companies that use Solarisbank’s technology in their products. 

Normally, building financial software such as a tool for issuing loans to small businesses involves a significant amount of coding. Moreover, in some cases, companies have to secure a license from banking regulators. Solarisbank’s value proposition is that it can help firms implement financial features in their applications with considerably less time and effort than if they were to build everything from scratch.

Contis, the startup Solarisbank is acquiring following the newly announced funding round, focuses on the same area. Contis provides cloud services that make it easier for companies to incorporate financial features such as card issuing tools into their applications. Between them, Solarisbank and Contis power financial applications that support some four million banking accounts.

Solarisbank has raised more than $400 million from investors since launching in 2016. The latest $244 million funding round announced today was led by Swiss investment firm Decisive Capital Management.

Solarisbank’s latest capital raise continues a recent wave of nine-figure funding round rounds for fintech startups. This month, Pleo Technologies Ltd. secured $150 million to broaden the adoption of its namesake service, which enables companies to issue corporate payment cards for their employees and promises to reduce the amount of time staffers have to spend on creating expense reports. A few days before Pleo announced the investment, U.K.-based business banking provider Tide Platform Ltd. reeled in $100 million. 

Image: Solarisbank