Estateguru selects Raisin Bank as fronting service partner for German launch

European alternative property lender Estateguru has partnered with Frankfurt-based banking-as-a-service provider Raisin Bank to enter the German market, where it has also hired a new country head.

Estateguru said it aims to finance €215 million of loans in Germany this year after signing a fronting service contract which will enable Raisin Bank – wholly owned by fintech Raisin – to provide services to Estateguru’s German borrowers.

The lender has established an office in Berlin and a local team, led by Björn Kombächer as country head for Germany.

During his career, Kombächer spent six years at Donner & Reuschel, where he was responsible for the alternative asset team, as well as managing director for Donner & Reuschel Finanz Service GmbH, before moving on to a position as head of investor relations at Engel & Völkers.

Marek Pärtel, co-founder and chairman of Estateguru, called Germany a “key market” in its long-term expansion strategy.

“Now that we have a fronting service partner in place, we are confident that Germany will be our biggest market, even after expanding to the UK, the Netherlands, Italy and France during this and next year,” Pärtel said.

“During campaigns on the Seedrs platform in 2020 and 2021, the biggest number of our equity investors were from Germany, and the German retail investor community was also the fastest growing group long before Germany was in the pipeline. As Germany has the biggest real estate market in Europe, we see plenty of room there for providing flexible alternative financing opportunities to SMEs.”

Dr. Andreas Wolf, chief commercial officer at Raisin Bank, added: “As a fronting bank, we will significantly accelerate Estateguru’s growth in the German market and effectively enable platform-based real estate financing.”