Barzahlen Founders Are Back With Global Voucher Play
The Finperks team - © Finperks/Nina Retzlaf
The founders of Berlin-based cash payments network Barzahlen are back with a new venture, and they've already secured serious backing. Sebastian Seifert and Achim Bönsch, who sold Barzahlen to Paysafe for around $100 million in 2021, have launched Finperks alongside former colleague Andreas Veller. The startup just closed a pre-seed round of €3.3 million, as Finance Forward reported.
The investors are well-known names in the German fintech world: Carsten Maschmeyer's seed+speed Ventures and Motive Partners, where Finleap founder Ramin Niroumand now works as a dealmaker. Maschmeyer notably backed the founders back in 2012 during their Barzahlen days.
So what does Finperks actually do? In short, it wants to make buying and distributing digital vouchers a lot less painful. According to Seifert, the voucher industry is still stuck in the past, dominated by a handful of large players and a patchwork of regional providers. For companies wanting to offer vouchers as tax-free employee benefits, sourcing them is a headache.
Finperks offers a single API that connects businesses to more than 1,000 brands across 30 European markets, including names like Zalando and Flix. Just six months after launch, the platform already counts Berlin fintech Flizpay and HR software firms Recardy and Paylo among its customers.
The founders see the global prepaid market at $1.4 trillion, with analysts projecting it could double by 2033. Long-term, Finperks has its sights set on becoming the Stripe of prepaid payments globally.
Thinking about launching a business, setting up premises, or creating partnerships in Berlin?
We invite you to contact us.
Our team is ready to help you with our free consultation services.