How Wiwin wants to move from financial intermediary to fintech

The Mainz-based start-up brokers sustainable investments. It is best known for its crowdinvesting campaigns with Tomorrow and Lemonaid. But now the company no longer just wants to be in the background, but wants to become a fintech itself.

No big investor, no state, but still eight million euros in financing: the money for Tomorrow last October came from over 6,000 private individuals. A success for the Hamburg-based bank with sustainable promise, but also for the start-up Wiwin. It pulled the strings in the background. In 2021, the Mainz-based company raised a total of over 20 million euros via crowdinvesting, and this is just the beginning. Wiwin's total brokered volume is set to reach 40 million euros this year, "75 million euros next year and then 100 million euros every year from 2024," explains Jonas Klose confidently. He has been managing Wiwin's operations together with Sigrid Niederlintner since September 2021; founder Matthias Willenbacher will finally retire this year. In addition to crowd investing, the money will also come from real estate projects and financing rounds for start-ups.

"We want to go from being a financial broker to a fintech," Niederlintner explains the optimistic forecasts in the Zoom interview and smiles proudly. This means moving away from white-label solutions and towards an in-house IT infrastructure; in the long term, everything should be done internally. "However, we have commissioned an IT service provider so that we can get started quickly," she explains. In the best-case scenario, it will start this year. Accordingly, "one of the biggest challenges in 2022 is to build our own IT platform." What is the reason for not starting directly in-house? "It's no secret that there is currently a major bottleneck in the IT sector on the market," says Niederlintner. The competition is fierce, and the start-up wants to win people over with its focus on sustainability: "We are very positive. The topic of purpose is very important, especially for young people, and is becoming increasingly important, so we can really score points with that," explains Niederlintner.

Wiwin focuses strictly on sustainability

Whether crowdinvesting or real estate projects, Wiwin only offers investments that have been rigorously tested for sustainability and impact. In the end, "only around one to two percent of requests actually make it onto our platform," says Klose. The decision is made by internal and external experts, who define the criteria individually for the sector and business model of the respective start-up. This is still based on the ESG criteria of the United Nations and our own specifications, and investments in areas such as weapons, gas, nuclear energy or tobacco are also excluded. But this is to be standardized: One project this year is the creation of an impact scoring system to show customers transparently how Wiwin selects its investments. This should also speed up the process.

Only one to two percent of inquiries make it onto our platform

Jonas Klose, authorized signatory Wiwin

The growth and the planned realignment are demanding in terms of personnel and time resources, and the strict review process is slowing down the pace. Last year, there were already times when Wiwin financed its projects within hours and private investors were left empty-handed when they searched for investment opportunities on the site. "We were sold out for a few months and had to put up with it," says Niederlintner. "But we remained consistent, didn't soften our criteria and continued to reject projects without impact." However, having nothing on offer has to change if the Mainz-based company wants to survive in the fintech jungle.

The competition is tough, but Wiwin sees itself as "leading the industry in many aspects, for example when it comes to digital securities and blockchain," says Niederlintner. And in her opinion, the Mainz-based company fills a gap: "If companies are looking for capital for project financing that is between 500,000 and 1.5 million euros, this is of no interest to institutional investors because the volume is too small and too much for your dad to lend you money," explains Klose. But Wiwin makes it possible through many small investors, crowd investing remains the core of the brand, says the Managing Director.

Wiwin wants to close a gap with its offering

Nevertheless, Wiwin is continuously expanding its offering. Last year, the start-up set up its first fund, and since September 2020 Klose has been building up the corporate finance business, "which starts where our offering in the crowd sector ends." And "we currently have some exciting mandates in the pipeline," he announces.

The Mainz-based company has one advantage: its network and experience. Willenbacher launched the company back in 2011 under the name Juwi Invest as a sister company of the energy company Juwi. In 2016, the company was renamed and renamed Wiwin. At the same time, Willenbacher established the "100 percent renewable" foundation and is himself an investor, for example in Tomorrow. This is also how the contact for the crowdinvesting campaign came about through Wiwin. "We receive many mandates through recommendations and by being actively approached by customers or from our network," explains Klose. Self-acquisition has so far been "still the smallest part", with further development "we want to do this much more in the future."

"We want to develop Wiwin into the leading platform for sustainable investment in Europe," says Klose. Wiwin is currently launching a crowd-investing campaign for itself; at the end of last year, the Mainz-based company raised a six-figure sum from business angels. The transformation is still in its infancy, but the Mainz-based company is not lacking in self-confidence.