Solarisbank
German bank-as-a-service provider running core banking rails under its own BaFin license.
On the record
Checkpoint: Full-year 2025 results confirming or denying promised profitability under CEO Steffen Jentsch
The call
Solaris holds the license regulators demand but keeps losing money and losing scaled customers, leaving its survival tied to SBI's patience rather than any competitor's move.
Solaris rents out a full German banking license to other fintech companies so they can offer services without getting their own license. This is hard to copy because getting a German banking license takes years and relationships with regulators, which Solaris already has. Competitors like Stripe Treasury and Adyen offer similar services without needing a license, and they are not losing money every year the way Solaris is. The real question is not whether someone will steal Solaris's customers, but whether its owner SBI Group will keep giving it money to cover its annual losses while a brand-new AI strategy gets tested out in 2025.
Why
01
AI pressure: Generic AI-driven KYC/onboarding and compliance automation tools. AI compresses the fee-earning onboarding and compliance layer Solaris sells, pushing it to automate itself or lose margin. Could AI do the core job? Only partly.
02
Bigger players: Stripe Treasury, Adyen for Platforms, BBVA, BNP Paribas via Treezor. Bigger platforms and even former investors now offer embedded banking directly, and anchor client Trade Republic already left after getting its own ECB license. Could a giant copy it? Probably.
03
What protects it. Its own German banking license and a decade-long BaFin relationship that no AI or fintech rival can simply buy.
What would change this call
Solaris publishes 2025 full-year results. Shows whether the promised return to profitability under CEO Jentsch actually happened.
A second major anchor customer announces its own banking license or platform exit. Would confirm Trade Republic's departure is a structural graduation pattern, not a one-off.
SBI Group makes a public statement on further capital injections or funding pullback. Tests whether majority owner SBI remains willing to keep funding losses.
A second major anchor customer announces its own banking license or platform exit. Would confirm Trade Republic's departure is a structural graduation pattern, not a one-off.
SBI Group makes a public statement on further capital injections or funding pullback. Tests whether majority owner SBI remains willing to keep funding losses.
Key numbers
- 2024 net loss about €103M
- SBI Group took majority control via €140M Series G
- Cut 80 roles, 20% of core staff, in AI pivot
Named risks
- Chronic annual losses (~€100M range) dependent on continued SBI Group capital support.
- Active BaFin special AML monitor since 2022 plus a 2024 €6.5M fine over compliance gaps.
- Unproven AI-native pivot announced March 25, 2026, only weeks old, paired with 20% layoff.
- Anchor customer graduation risk after Trade Republic left for its own license in 2023.
- Sustained headcount decline, 2,868 to 2,443 employees between 2023 and Q4 2025, signals instability.
Rivals, as read in July 2026
| Rival | Direction | Evidence |
|---|---|---|
| Trade Republic | losing to | Obtained own ECB banking license in 2023, no longer depends on Solaris |
| Stripe | contesting | Stripe Treasury bundles banking-like services into large merchant base as of 2026 |
| Adyen | contesting | Adyen for Platforms bundles embedded banking, pressuring specialist BaaS pricing, 2026 |
| ClearBank | gaining on | Reported valuation over £1bn in 2025 versus Solaris's written-down valuation |
| Treezor (BNP Paribas) | gaining on | BNP Paribas-backed, well-capitalized French BaaS peer as of 2026 |
| BBVA | contesting | Longtime Solaris investor now also runs its own open-banking and BaaS operations |
Questions people ask
- Is Solarisbank profitable in 2026?
- No confirmed profitability. Solaris posted a 2024 net loss of roughly €103M after a €178M loss in 2023. CEO Carsten Höltkemeyer said in October 2024 the firm expected to be super close to full year profitability in 2025, but no later reporting confirms it was achieved; March 2026 brought a 20% layoff instead.
- Who owns Solarisbank now?
- Japan's SBI Group became Solaris's majority shareholder through a €140M Series G round announced February 3, 2025, with regulatory approval completed March 25, 2025. This followed an SBI rescue funding round in November 2024 after prior investors included BBVA and HV Capital.
- Could AI replace Solarisbank?
- No, AI cannot replace Solaris's full German banking license, but Solaris itself is automating the layers it built its business on. On March 25, 2026 it announced a pivot to become an AI-native bank and cut 80 roles, 20% of its roughly 400 person core team.
- Who are Solarisbank's biggest competitors?
- Direct banking-as-a-service peers include ClearBank, Swan, Treezor (BNP Paribas owned), Railsr, Vodeno and Griffin. Its former marquee client Trade Republic left after obtaining its own ECB banking license in 2023, showing how scaled customers can graduate away.
- Did Solarisbank lose Trade Republic as a customer?
- Yes. Trade Republic used Solaris to hold customer funds before obtaining its own ECB banking license in 2023, after which it no longer depended on Solaris, illustrating a customer graduation pattern that pressures Solaris's business model.
- Has Solarisbank had regulatory problems?
- Yes. Germany's BaFin fined Solaris €6.5M in March 2024 for delayed suspicious activity report filings and has maintained a special anti money laundering monitor over the company since 2022, an active constraint on its licensed banking moat.
Timeline
- 2026-03-25Announced AI-native bank pivot, cut 80 roles, 20% of ~400 core staff
- 2026-01-29Launched Bankident Plus combined identity verification and account opening
- 2025-12-30New CEO Steffen Jentsch and CRO Matthias Heinrich appointed
- 2025-09-29Selected ACI Connetic to modernize payments infrastructure
- 2025-03-25SBI Group majority ownership completes regulatory approval
- 2025-02-03€140M Series G announced, SBI Group becomes majority shareholder
- 2024-11SBI Group provides rescue funding amid valuation write-down
- 2024-03BaFin fines Solaris €6.5M for delayed suspicious activity report filings
- 2023Net loss €178M on €137M revenue, including €123M write-down
- 2022BaFin installs special AML monitor over Solaris
Revision history
22 July 2026
First assessed. Protection under test. The text above is fixed as of this date and is not edited afterwards.
In the same band
Sources
- German unicorn Solaris on the right track (2024-10-01)
- Solaris, Germany FinTech
- Solarisbank raises EUR 190 million (2021-07-26)
- Press & Media (2025-03-25)
- Solaris Number of Employees 2026 (2026-06-29)
- German fintech Solaris to axe 20% of workforce (2026-03-25)
- How Much Did Solaris Raise? (2026-02-08)
- wikipedia.org (Trade Republic page)
- Bafin fines German fintech Solaris SE €6.5M (2024-03)
- Solaris strategic transformation (2026-03-25)
- Solaris launches Bankident Plus (2026-01-29)
- Solaris Cuts 80 Jobs (2026-03-27)