Raisin, the platform for savings and investments, acquires pension startup Fairr

Raisin, the well-capitalised fintech startup that offers a pan-European marketplace for savings and investment products, has acquired Fairr, a German startup disrupting the pensions industry. Terms remain undisclosed, although I understand the price was in the “double-digit Euro millions” range.

The majority of the deal was cash, although some Fairr investors exited with a mixture of cash and Raisin stock. Fairr’s investors included IBB Investitionsbank Berlin, Transamerica Ventures, Pro7Sat.1 Accelerator and Söderberg & Partners.

Raisin says the acquisition of Fairr is part of a strategy to enter the €12 trillion European pension and retirement savings market, which is a natural extension to the fintech’s current focus on deposits and investments.

The idea is to be able to offer an all in one online marketplace that only needs to be signed up to once, including the mandatory regulatory checks, in order for customers to purchase savings, investments and now pension products.

Fairr’s founders are said to be staying on and will take leading roles in the newly formed investments and pension products division at Raisin, which will include Raisin’s existing investment product line WeltInvest. “The entire Fairr team will also join them in becoming part of the larger Raisin family,” says the company.

Meanwhile, I’m told that one of the main reasons for choosing to acquire Fairr is that the startup has shown it can successfully streamline and digitise the heavily regulated German pension market, including being able to offer a more cost-effective and flexible version of the German state-funded “Riester” pension product. It also offers products targeting company pensions and supplementary retirement savings.

“Just as Raisin focuses on providing savings that are more customer-friendly and more transparent than comparable products on the market, Fairr has been dedicated to doing the same with its own solutions in retirement savings,” says Raisin. “Fairr’s low-cost, fully digital offer is based on an ETF investment approach. The company has received multiple awards and seen its products recommended by both Germany’s premier financial advice publication and top consumer finance guide.”