UnitPlus, Vodeno and Aion join forces to make direct payments with ETF investments possible for the first time
Berlin startup, UnitPlus, launches the world’s first ETF investment product with a seamlessly integrated payment mechanism.
In this time of record inflation, holding money in a checking, savings, or overnight deposit account loses value, meaning it has never been more expensive to keep money as cash. That’s why UnitPlus, Vodeno, a Banking-as-a-Service (BaaS) provider, and Aion Bank, a European digital bank, combined forces to empower savers to become investors by helping them easily invest unused money and make potential market returns to fight inflation, all while retaining instant access to cash.
Fabian Mohr, CEO & Co-Founder of UnitPlus
“A single product that lets you both invest money smartly and conveniently ‘pay with your portfolio’ is a financial revolution, and our mission is to help people easily access this flexible way of investing.”
UnitPlus went live for German iOS users at the beginning of May with thousands of downloads in the first days, and the app is now also available for Android devices in Germany. UnitPlus customers invest their unused money in broadly diversified ETF (exchange traded fund) portfolios and are able to pay with their portfolio by using the UnitPlus debit card through the unique ‘pay-with-portfolio’ mechanism, worldwide and free of charge. This is the first time ETF portfolios are being integrated in the international payment space. Users’ money is put to work and invested in the capital market instead of lying dormant in low-interest yielding bank accounts. UnitPlus gives customers access to a very convenient investment solution, and money is available to use anytime, making it tailored to their investing and spending needs.
Kerstin Schneider, CFO & Co-Founder of UnitPlus
“Our product development was made possible through the close partnership with Aion Bank and Vodeno, giving us access to one of the most modern banking infrastructures in Europe. We have a unique value proposition, and with one of the most innovative BaaS players in Europe as partners, we were able to bring UnitPlus to life in just over a year”
Aion Bank and Vodeno, commercial partners offering BaaS solutions, provide the banking backbone for UnitPlus, including card and payment functionality, authentication and compliance, and Aion’s ETFmatic powers the access to the worldwide markets.
Wojciech Sass, CEO of Aion Bank
“UnitPlus is a great example of how fintech innovation is being powered by BaaS. We were able to make their idea a reality with the VODENO Cloud Platform and our KYC and compliance expertise. Integrating the investment and payment worlds in such an elegant way will introduce ETF investing to many more people.”
Berlin-based FinTech UnitPlus was founded in early 2021 by the trio Fabian Mohr, Kerstin Schneider and Sébastien Segue in Berlin. Fabian worked as an equity analyst for payment companies at Flossbach von Storch before becoming CEO at UnitPlus. Kerstin (CFO) spent seven years in management consulting for financial services, most recently as a manager at zeb. Sébastien (CTO) has been a backend engineer for over 15 years and most recently held senior positions at BillPay and Klarna. He brings years of leadership experience, as well as expertise in the FinTech space. UnitPlus’ mission is to make investing as easy as saving.
Aion Bank and Vodeno are acting as commercial partners with a mission to revolutionise the Financial Services industry. Combining a modern cloud-native ‘360’ platform ecosystem, a European banking licence and a team of banking experts, we are uniquely positioned to offer comprehensive embedded financial services for banks, lenders and merchants across multiple sectors. Covering all areas of the banking ecosystem, from ‘smart contract enabled’ core banking to accounts, onboarding, payments, cards, investment and lending solutions, Aion and Vodeno offer the ability to meet the demands of regulation while enabling innovation at speed.
Aion Bank and Vodeno are separate companies and backed by global private equity firm Warburg Pincus LLC.