Kaspar& secures pre-seed financing round and onboards ex-Twint-CEO as new board member
10.05.2021
The St.Gallen based FinTech start-up Kaspar& successfully secures its pre-seed financing round to launch its alpha-users offering. Further, Thierry Kneissler, former CEO of Twint, joins the spin-off from the University of St. Gallen (HSG) and the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology (ETH) as a board member. We interviewed co-founder Dr. Jan-Philip Schade about the use of the new funds and his entrepreneurial path.
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Only six months after Kaspar&’s founding in August 2020 St. Gallen-based FinTech startup has closed an over signed pre-seed investment round. Being backed by renowned business angels Kaspar& is launching its Family & Friends phase. The company is currently developing more advanced investment and wealth management functions. Previously, Kaspar& has won Venture Kick Stage 1 which has additionally helped to hire new team members and build up additional technical resources.
With Kaspar& Switzerland’s digital wealth management market has won a new and very promising player. In contrast to existing players which often solely focus on market niches Kaspar& sees itself as a solution for the broad market aiming at creating an easy and accessible way to invest. For the first time, Kaspar& natively combines payments and investing by allowing customers not only to pay with their payment card but also automatically round-up with every payment to the next Swiss Franc. The automatically generated top-up is then directly invested for the customer and can be used for a variety of personalized investment goals as for example retirement planning, a godchild savings fund, or a planned own real-estate investment. Kaspar& is partnering with Hypothekarbank Lenzburg (HBL) as its banking and payment partner. HBL's modular and open banking infrastructure allows Kaspar& to freely design its services without having to apply for a banking license itself.
Before founding Kaspar& the team was highly involved in the development and management of large institutional investment mandates as well as a variety of wealth management solutions in Switzerland. Furthermore, they were engaged in the development of various software applications in the banking industry. Now, with Thierry Kneissler -picture on the right - as a new member of the board of directors, an experienced payment veteran joins the company, helping to shape the strategic development of Kaspar&.
Jan-Philip, how will this investment help achieve your vision?
The current investment round is the fundament of our ability to launch or family & friends offering within the next weeks. So far, we were only able to test our product solely with the help of interviews and mock-ups. Now, with the next step, we can actually start leveraging on the extensive App usage of our daily growing alpha-user community. Unfortunately, particularly the FinTech (or better said wealth tech) area requires high regulatory compliance standards which prevents start-ups to quickly launch a minimum viable product without extensive previous development efforts. Our business angels backed investment round helped us to secure the needed development resources and enables us to closely interact with our alpha-user community. Finally, the investment will also allow us to test different acquisition channels in more detail.
You won Venture Kick Stage 1 in 2020. How did it help you lay the foundation for your growth and today's achievement?
First of all, we were of course absolutely happy to have win Stage 1 and to be able to convince such a wide jury of experts. Apart, Venture Kick Stage 1 has helped us to gain publicity: on the day of the press release we were able to directly measure a significantly higher amount of new alpha-user registrations! Further, we were able to use the funds to expand our team in the field of business development and marketing. Both fields are extremely important for us at the current stage.
When, and what, was your inspiration to found Kaspar&?
The founding team of Kaspar& is built up of four highly skilled wealth- and asset management specialists from the fields of portfolio-, risk- and IT management. Particularly, we have been adding significant value for pension funds, private banks, or family offices over the last years. However, we actually found that while a small group of individuals is able to gain access to state-of-the-art wealth management solutions, the broad mass is stuck to pretty standard solutions. Hence, our mission is to take our know-how and expertise and make it accessible to the mass market because we believe that also in a world of negative interest rates everyone should have the chance to build up wealth and obtain the desired personal level of financial flexibility and freedom.
What is your advice for the potential FinTech entrepreneurs launching companies in Switzerland today?
First of all, I believe FinTech is a great field to start an innovative and young company. Large parts of the existing financial industry are stuck to old legacy systems and often lack the potential to disrupt the market. However, I would advise any potential new start-up to rigorously check and evaluate the technical and regulatory set-up of the company. Regulation can be quite tough (in particular for start-ups) and finding a smart and elegant way to reduce any regulatory efforts, as well as intense technical bank integrations, can be the key for long-term success.
With Kaspar& Switzerland’s digital wealth management market has won a new and very promising player. In contrast to existing players which often solely focus on market niches Kaspar& sees itself as a solution for the broad market aiming at creating an easy and accessible way to invest. For the first time, Kaspar& natively combines payments and investing by allowing customers not only to pay with their payment card but also automatically round-up with every payment to the next Swiss Franc. The automatically generated top-up is then directly invested for the customer and can be used for a variety of personalized investment goals as for example retirement planning, a godchild savings fund, or a planned own real-estate investment. Kaspar& is partnering with Hypothekarbank Lenzburg (HBL) as its banking and payment partner. HBL's modular and open banking infrastructure allows Kaspar& to freely design its services without having to apply for a banking license itself.
Kaspar& four founders, from left to right: Dr. Lukas Plachel, Dr. Jan-Philip Schade, Lauro Böni and Sebastian Büchler
The team around Kaspar&’s founders Dr. Jan-Philip Schade, Dr. Lukas Plachel, Lauro Böni, and Sebastian Büchler consists of experienced finance and software experts with intensely practical and academic research experience.Before founding Kaspar& the team was highly involved in the development and management of large institutional investment mandates as well as a variety of wealth management solutions in Switzerland. Furthermore, they were engaged in the development of various software applications in the banking industry. Now, with Thierry Kneissler -picture on the right - as a new member of the board of directors, an experienced payment veteran joins the company, helping to shape the strategic development of Kaspar&.Jan-Philip, how will this investment help achieve your vision?The current investment round is the fundament of our ability to launch or family & friends offering within the next weeks. So far, we were only able to test our product solely with the help of interviews and mock-ups. Now, with the next step, we can actually start leveraging on the extensive App usage of our daily growing alpha-user community. Unfortunately, particularly the FinTech (or better said wealth tech) area requires high regulatory compliance standards which prevents start-ups to quickly launch a minimum viable product without extensive previous development efforts. Our business angels backed investment round helped us to secure the needed development resources and enables us to closely interact with our alpha-user community. Finally, the investment will also allow us to test different acquisition channels in more detail.
You won Venture Kick Stage 1 in 2020. How did it help you lay the foundation for your growth and today's achievement?
First of all, we were of course absolutely happy to have win Stage 1 and to be able to convince such a wide jury of experts. Apart, Venture Kick Stage 1 has helped us to gain publicity: on the day of the press release we were able to directly measure a significantly higher amount of new alpha-user registrations! Further, we were able to use the funds to expand our team in the field of business development and marketing. Both fields are extremely important for us at the current stage.
When, and what, was your inspiration to found Kaspar&?
The founding team of Kaspar& is built up of four highly skilled wealth- and asset management specialists from the fields of portfolio-, risk- and IT management. Particularly, we have been adding significant value for pension funds, private banks, or family offices over the last years. However, we actually found that while a small group of individuals is able to gain access to state-of-the-art wealth management solutions, the broad mass is stuck to pretty standard solutions. Hence, our mission is to take our know-how and expertise and make it accessible to the mass market because we believe that also in a world of negative interest rates everyone should have the chance to build up wealth and obtain the desired personal level of financial flexibility and freedom.
What is your advice for the potential FinTech entrepreneurs launching companies in Switzerland today?
First of all, I believe FinTech is a great field to start an innovative and young company. Large parts of the existing financial industry are stuck to old legacy systems and often lack the potential to disrupt the market. However, I would advise any potential new start-up to rigorously check and evaluate the technical and regulatory set-up of the company. Regulation can be quite tough (in particular for start-ups) and finding a smart and elegant way to reduce any regulatory efforts, as well as intense technical bank integrations, can be the key for long-term success.