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 wants to just stand in the background, but become a fintech itself.

No big investor, no state, but still an eight-million-euro financing: the money for Tomorrow last October came from more than 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 turned over a total of more than 20 million euros via crowdinvesting, and that is supposed to be just the beginning. Wiwin's total brokered volume is expected to reach 40 million euros this year, "75 next year, and then 100 million euros every year from 2024," Jonas Klose explains 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 crowdinvesting, the money is also to come from real estate projects and financing rounds for start-ups.

"We want to move from being a financial intermediary to a fintech," Niederlintner explains the optimistic forecasts in a Zoom interview, smiling proudly. Means: moving away from white label solutions to own IT infrastructure, in the long run everything should be located internally. "In order to be able to start quickly now, however, we have commissioned an IT service provider," she explains. In the best case, things will get underway as early as this year. Accordingly, "one of the biggest challenges in 2022 is to build our own IT platform." What's the reason for not getting started with it directly in-house? "It's no secret that there is currently a major bottleneck in IT on the market," says Niederlintner. The competition is fierce, and the start-up wants to win over customers with its focus on sustainability: "We are very positive. The topic of purpose is very important, especially among young people, and is becoming more and more important, so we can score super points with that," Niederlintner explains.

Wiwin focuses strictly on sustainability

Regardless of whether crowdinvesting or then soon real estate projects, Wiwin only offers investments strictly tested for sustainability and impact. In the end, "only about one to two percent of the inquiries 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 the business model of the start-up in question. The criteria are still based on the ESG criteria of the United Nations and the company's own specifications, and there is also an exclusion of investments in areas such as weapons, gas, nuclear energy or tobacco. But this is to be standardized: One project this year is the creation of an impact scoring system that will transparently show customers 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 demand both personnel and time resources, and the strict review process leads to a slowed pace. Even last year, there were times when Wiwin had its projects funded within hours and private investors came up empty when they searched for investment opportunities on the site. "We were sold out for a few months and had to endure that," Niederlintner says. "But we stayed consistent, didn't soften our criteria, and continued to reject projects without impact." Having nothing on offer will have to change, however, if the Mainz-based company wants to survive in the fintech jungle.

Competition is fierce, but Wiwin considers itself "a leader in the industry in many aspects, such as digital securities and blockchain," Niederlintner says. And in their view, the Mainz-based company fills a gap: "When companies are looking for capital for project financing that is between 500,000 and 1.5 million euros, that is uninteresting for institutional investors because the volume is too small, and too much for your dad to lend you money," Klose explains. But Wiwin makes it possible through many small investors, crowdinvesting remains brand core, says the CEO.

Wiwin wants to close a gap with its offer

Nevertheless, Wiwin is continuously expanding its offering. Last year, the start-up launched its first fund, and since September 2020, Klose has been building up the corporate finance business, "which starts where our crowdfunding offering leaves off." And "we have some exciting mandates in the pipeline there right now," he announces.

The Mainz-based company has one advantage: its networking and experience. Back in 2011, Willenbacher started the company under the name Juwi Invest as a sister of the energy company Juwi. In 2016, the renaming and name change to Wiwin took place. At the same time, Willenbacher founded the "100 percent renewable" foundation and is himself active as an investor, for example in Tomorrow. This is also how the contact for the crowdinvesting campaign came about through Wiwin. "We get many mandates through recommendations and through active approaches by clients or from the network," Klose explains. Self-acquisition is so far "still the smallest part," with further development "we want to do that significantly more in the future."

"We want to develop Wiwin into the leading platform for sustainable investment in Europe," says Klose. Right now, Wiwin is launching a crowdinvesting campaign for itself; at the end of last year, the Mainz-based company raised a six-figure sum through business angels. The transformation is still in its infancy, but the Mainzers have no lack of self-confidence.