As part of our founder spotlight series, Ashish Aggarwal sat down with Tamaz Georgadze to talk about Raisin’s journey—from its origins during the financial crisis to becoming a leader in savings and investment across Europe.
Ashish: Your background is fascinating—what inspired you to start Raisin, and how did your journey lead you here?
Tamaz: The first time the idea came to me was around 2008, when the Global Financial Crisis was unravelling. The main reason for banks to fail at the beginning of the crisis was lack of access to client deposits and overreliance on market-based funding. The idea came up to create infrastructure which mid-size banks can leverage to build up and manage retail client funding.
Our product journey began in Germany in 2012 with a clear mission which augmented that angle: to help consumers make the most of their money. Since then, savers have earned more than €2 billion with our platform.
Our business model is straightforward: we connect banks with consumers. Such a two-sided marketplace is designed to create strong value for both platform participants. We support consumers in investing and growing their assets and shaping their own financial future. Banks, in return, receive effortless access to sticky, granular retail funding and a diversified customer base.
Asish: What problem were you trying to solve when you founded Raisin, and how has that mission evolved over time?
Tamaz: We wanted to offer savings and investment products without barriers, both to consumers and to the participating financial institutions. Consumers get, with one registration and one login, access to products of dozens of banks. Banks can, through partnership with us, leverage our infrastructure, knowledge, and client base to build up the client funding portfolio which best suits their commercial objectives.
Over the past decade, we started to develop from a savings platform into a more holistic wealth management platform, in order to support consumers with superior solutions for their cash holdings and beyond.
Asish: Money and savings can feel overwhelming for many people. How does Raisin simplify financial decision-making for the everyday person?
Our platform is very transparent and easy to handle. With only one access, customers can choose savings products from numerous banks – at no cost.
We call our investment products (available in Germany only to date) “the most boring investment in the world”. Consumers who trust our Digital Wealth Management benefit from a tailor-made, broadly diversified portfolio—based on science, designed to achieve the best possible long-term returns at a low cost.
Ashish: Raisin has grown into a global platform. What are the key challenges of scaling across different markets, and what have been your biggest learnings?
Tamaz: Navigating different regulatory environments remains one of the most complex challenges for any financial services provider operating across borders. Depending on the specific topic, a company may be subject to EU-level regulation, national laws, or a combination of both. National regulatory requirements may even go beyond what is mandated by EU directives, creating additional layers of complexity and compliance efforts.
One of the biggest learnings has been that it's a marathon, not a sprint - scaling a business sustainably across markets takes time and patience. Hiring great people and trusting them has been another cornerstone of our growth.
What we have done from the start: engaging with regulators. Building open, constructive relationships with supervisory authorities has proven essential. Rather than treating regulatory bodies as hurdles, we see them as partners in shaping the financial ecosystem responsibly.
Ashish: What role does technology play in transforming access to high-yield savings? How do you see fintech reshaping personal finance in the next five years?
Tamaz: The backbone of our modular technology is the ability to integrate with banks in different geographies, using different core banking systems and having a multitude of reporting obligations, which we to large parts support. We integrate all relevant services, from KYC of consumers to customer service and payment rails, so that the banks can rely on us to provide full platform services to them.
Technology also allows us to enable customers to easily compare and access a wide range of products from banks around the world, all through a convenient and user-centric platform.
Looking ahead, fintech will continue reshaping personal finance in the next five years by making financial services more accessible, personalized, and efficient. AI and data-driven insights will power smarter, more tailored financial solutions, while open banking and decentralized finance (DeFi) will offer more flexibility and choice.
As a result, managing personal finances will become easier, and savers will be able to save and invest more effectively.
Ashish: Entrepreneurship comes with highs and lows. Can you share a defining moment—either a major win or a tough challenge—that shaped Raisin’s journey?
Tamaz: The merger with our largest competitor, Deposit Solutions, in 2021 marked a transformational milestone for our business. It positioned us as the clear market leader in Germany and across the European Union, significantly strengthening our competitive advantage. Most importantly, it enabled us to consolidate capabilities and broaden our product offering, allowing us to deliver an even more compelling portfolio of savings products to consumers across Europe.
The acquisition of MHB-Bank - now operating as Raisin Bank - marked a significant strategic milestone. For an extended period, we were among the very few fintech companies, if not the only one, to acquire a fully licensed bank. This move enabled us to operate largely independently of third-party servicing banks in Europe (we partner with sponsor banks in the US and the UK), giving us full control over our technical infrastructure and allowing us to internalize any service-related revenues.
The Covid pandemic also had a significant impact on our culture. We transitioned into a fully hybrid company, and it has worked out very well. Our employees really value the flexibility that comes with it.
Ashish: Building trust is critical in financial services. How does Raisin approach customer trust, transparency, and education?
Tamaz: To begin with the underlying product – bank deposits are the safest asset class out there. We also limit the client exposure to a single bank so that the deposited amounts do not exceed deposit guarantee limits. This core focus already instills trust in our customers, who are willing to deposit significant amounts with us – on average USD 85,000 across our markets. Also, in the further roll-out of capital market products, we always adhered to the principle of offering only broadly diversified and low-cost solutions so that our clients maintain trust in our principled, consumer-friendly approach, helping them to make the most out of their money.
Beyond this, we invest in financial education: we offer customers webinars and tools to help them make better investment decisions and understand the underlying principles. We also offer highlights of deposit analytics to our bank partners to help them achieve their funding goals more efficiently.
This combination of transparency, no or low fees, and a strong educational foundation enables us to build lasting trust with our customers.
Ashish: Many founders say their leadership style evolves over time. How would you describe your leadership philosophy today?
Tamaz: I always wanted to be helpful to others and help them grow. I realised early in my previous McKinsey career that, purely selfishly, having the brightest and most motivated people around allows you to focus on the things that matter most.
It sharpened our focus on talent acquisition and retention early on. We want our colleagues to grow continuously, ideally inside the Raisin ecosystem.
The other learning I have had already at Raisin is that there is never enough transparency and communication. Colleagues expect an overinvestment in that, especially in volatile times.
And lastly, I have always tried to stay humble and approachable and have encouraged others in the management to be like this.
Ashish: PayPal Ventures has been an investor in Raisin since 2017. How has this partnership helped accelerate your vision, and market insights?
Tamaz: We look up to PayPal as one of the very few category leaders with a truly global product ambition. Something we at Raisin naturally admire. Whilst we were scaling Raisin globally, PayPal Ventures had always been a great partner for us since their initial investment almost a decade ago. The team was always supportive on the investment side, in our fundraises and inorganic growth bets. Beyond, the continuous exchange of ideas, trends, and the PP Ventures' ability to offer an active eco-system for venture-backed firms within their investment universe helped a lot.
Ashish: Beyond Raisin, what excites you most about the future of finance, and what’s next for the company?
Tamaz: I’m excited about the future of the global savings and investment market. With a total market size exceeding €140 trillion, our highly scalable business model still has huge growth potential.
We just launched our platform in Finland and now operate in ten markets. But there are still tons of markets where our product is not yet available. Also, our capital markets products are, until now, restricted to consumers in Germany. We doubtlessly want to offer investment options for our cash product users beyond Germany, so there is an exciting and robust roadmap, both geographically and on a product dimension.
Raisin is a financial intermediary that enables savers and financial institutions to connect across our award-winning marketplaces in Europe, the UK, and US.