About Us
What drives us
We believe in digital solutions for cash. Through our services, banks can offer their customer to withdraw and deposit money while shopping. Our vision is to replace the classic bank branch and, together with our retail partners, become the place where everyone can manage his or her most basic banking needs. We implement various services such as bill payment, couponing, money transfer and top-up.
who we are
viafintech in numbers
k
+
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Countries live
Employees
Nationalities
2011
The company is founded in August 2011 by Achim Bönsch, Sebastian Seifert and Florian Swoboda.
2012
The company’s first product “Barzahlen” is under development. The year 2012 was used for successful cash register integration at dm, real,- and mobilcom-debitel and the first online merchants are also on board. The ALSTIN group is investing in the successful development of the company.
2013
On Wednesday, 13th March 2013 the network goes live in Germany. In addition to first mover dm drogerie markt (1,390 POS), real,- supermarkets and mobilcom-debitel shops join the retail-network in the course of the year. On top of online-shops and the gaming industry, the first customer from the energy supply sector joins forces: Stadtwerke Düsseldorf
2014
viafintechs prominent German product Barzahlen is honoured as the best payment service 2014 and awarded with the IT Innovation Award. Our online shop network grows to several thousand: Over 7000 online-shops, travel and gaming providers use our service.
2015
viafintech expands its services to other industries and sectors and is now actively involved in dunning, insurance and telecommunication. Additionally a solution for banking deposits and withdrawals is introduced. By the end of 2015 the retail-partner network in Germany is joined by about 3000 REWE stores.
2016
The GRENKE BANK AG invests in viafintech. In 2016 the focus is on putting live the banking solution for withdrawals and deposits from and to private bank accounts. Challenger bank N26 as well as the German DKB start offering the new service right away.
2017
Additional banks use our independent infrastructure for expanding their own branch network, for example Sparda Banken and the first Sparkasse.
2018
Rossmann, Germany’s second-largest drugstore chain, joins our retail-partner network. Furthermore, Barzahlen launches in Austria with dm and N26 as first partners – a cornerstone for the companys’ internationalization process
2019
viafintech extends its POS network in Europa significantly: In Austria the REWE International AG goes live with the trade partners BILLA, BIPA, MERKUR and Penny. At the beginning of February the Swiss Federal Railways (SBB) implement our service in all their ticket machines. Finally in May the first non-German-speaking country joins the network: In Italy we onboard PAM Panorama as a retailer and the two banks N26 and Hype as merchants. Later in the year also PAM Local stores offer viafintech services. Furthermore, two banks join in 2019: Targobank and bunq. In 2019 we launch our international brand viacash that will replace the german brand Barzahlen in the long-term.
2020
coming soon
Management
Achim Bönsch
Managing Director & Founder
Achim Boensch is responsible for our retail partnerships as well as the HR and PR/Marketing department. Before founding
Barzahlen he worked at Roland Berger Strategy Consultants in the department of Consumer Goods and Retail.
Sebastian Seifert
Managing Director & Founder
Sebastian Seifert is in charge of the divisions Sales, IT and business development. Furthermore, he is taking care of Investor Relations. Before founding viafintech, he operated for JP
Morgan in London and built up extensive experience in the financial sector, especially in investment banking.
Andreas Veller
Managing Director
Andreas Veller is accountable for the finance, operations, product and legal department. He is the former founder of Shopwings and worked as a
consultant in the banking sphere. At McKinsey he managed the IT restructuration of a retail bank and a post merger integration in the banking sector.
Team
Behind great leaders is a great team
Internationalisation
Lena Holderegger
General Manager Switzerland
Lena takes care of the further expansion in Switzerland and
works mainly from Zurich. She has many years of experience as an in-house consultant
and in the area of strategic digitalization at Credit Suisse. Lena has a master’s degree
in economics and business administration from the University of Zurich.
Flavio De Laurentis
General Manager Italy
Flavio is responsible
for the development of the network of merchants and retailers in Italy.
He holds an MBA from the Hong Kong University of Science and Technology Business School.
Before joining viafintech, he worked for McKinsey and Company in Milan in Banking and High
Tech Industry.
Antonios Peppas
General Manager Greece
Antonios will bring the viafintech network to Greece. He
graduated from the University of Bonn and holds a Master’s Degree from WHU
Business School. Before working at viafintech, Antonios worked as a
Management Consultant at KPMG for the Healthcare sector.
Fady Bouatmé
General Manager France
Fady will help expanding
viafintech to France. He has a masters degree in management from NEOMA business school
and previously worked as an advisory manager at the EY financial service office in Paris.
Pedro Borges
General Manager Iberia
Pedro leads the viafintech business in Spain and Portugal.
Before joining the team, he worked 6 years in Finance at Procter & Gamble, bringing combined knowledge of the finance and the retail sectors together with a sharp focus on consumer needs.
He holds an Economics Degree from the University of Porto and a Master in Finance & Strategy from WHU.
Filip Surowiak
General Manager UK
Filip is leading viafintech’s
expansion into the UK market. He has a track record of setting strategy and bringing new
financial products to market. Managing and growing the online and retail business at
Travelex and then International Currency Exchange. Filip is also co-founder of Crozdesk,
a SaaS marketplace, and holds a business degree from Warwick Business School.
Anna Szczygielska
General Manager Poland
Anna’s main task is to introduce viafintech to the Polish market. She joined the company in 2019 after having spent 10+ years working for the top consulting companies, such as EY, Accenture and PwC. Anna managed multiple projects worldwide. She is an ACCA Member and holds a Master’s degree in Economics.
Sales
Janusz Buttgereit
Director Insurances, Telco, Housing
Janusz is in charge of insurance, telecommunications and housing customers. The payment specialist has many years of work experience. Before joining viafintech he worked for Sofort AG, Paysafecard and Clickandbuy.
Matthias Mohn
Senior Director Strategic Projects
As Senior Director of Strategic Business Projects Matthias manages many exciting new projects. The experienced strategy expert used to be consultant at Capgemini Consulting and BCG and led several IT projects for various banks.
Madleen Naethler
Senior KAM ecommerce and DC
As Senior Key Account Manager Madleen covers all ecommerce and debt collection accounts. She holds a degree in business economics and has several years of experience in consulting working for Creditsafe and tecis financial services.
Florian Oberle
Director Sales & Business Development
Florian is responsible for our strategic projects and the management of the German sales team. He gained experience in the financial services industry during his studies at the London School of Economics & Political Science. Florian formerly worked as a consultant in the banking division of Simon-Kucher & Partners.
Pavlina Popova
Director Banking
Pavlina started experiencing the banking industry early on during her Economic studies at Humboldt-University Berlin working at Landesbank Berlin AG. After her studies she continued as a consultant for Simon-Kucher & Partners consulting banks regarding pricing, marketing and sales strategies.
Weina Wang
Director Retail
Weina is responsible for the stationary partners of viafintech, in particular for the further development of the network in Europe. The versatile project manager previously worked for several years in management consulting at Accenture and at Volkswagen in China.
Frank Weinmann
SVP Utilities and Public Sector
The former chairman of the management board of Energie SaarLorLux AG heads the Utilities and Public Sector of viafintech and has statutory authority. Frank brings in several years of experience in business development, change management and consultancy in the energy sector.
Operations Manager
Michael Bernstein
Director Finance & Accounting
Michael is responsible for Finance and Accounting. He holds a Bachelors degree in Business administration from HWR Berlin. Prior to viafintech Michael worked for several finance departments in different industries such as financial accounting, accounts payable and treasury.
Timo Borreck
VP Software Engineering
Timo Borreck takes responsibility for the technical development of the company.
He holds a masters degree in computer science and worked at ARIVA.DE AG before, one of the most successful German finance companies.
Ulrike Czekay
Director PR & Marketing
Ulrike accounts for all corporate communication matters at viafintech. After her studies of media, music and cultural sciences at HU Berlin she gained longstanding experience as a PR consultant in a PR and Lobbying agency and worked for several Start-ups.
Thomas Lewicki, LL.M.
Director Legal
Thomas is leading the legal department at viafintec. After studying law (specialised in: international corporate law), Thomas worked as a legal at at BIOTRONIK. He also gained experience at ISiCO data protection where he worked as data protection officer for several fintech companies.
Philipp Wiegel
VP of Product / CPO
Philipp heads the product department of viafintech. Philipp’s background is in software development. He was a product manager in numerous companies and gained several years of experience as an entrepreneur.
Anne Zander
Director HR
Anne is heading the human resources and office management departments of viafintech. She is an experienced recruiter and has worked as a talent resourcer and recruitment manager for various companies
Advisory Board
Dr. Uwe Franke
Dr. Uwe Franke was executive chairman of BP Deutschland AG and BP Europa SE from 1999 to
2012.
He is president of the World Energy Council Germany since 2014.
Dr. Franke has an extensive network in the energy sector and shall
support Cash Payment Solutions GmbH at further development in this sector.
Michael Müller
Michael Müller is the founder of paysafecard, a safe prepayment method that made cash payments possible
for the first time. With Michael Müller as the CEO, the paysafecard grew to a globally
leading financial service company. Paysafecard has been acquired in 2013 for 140 million euros by the Skrill Group.
Bernd M. Fieseler
Bernd M. Fieseler was managing director of the Deutsche Sparkassen- and Giroverband
from 2001 to 2011. The former McKinsey consultant, bank manager and member of the board
of directors of many payment companies shaped the payment and transactions sector in
Germany and Europe for over a decade.
Investors
We are grateful for your trust!
REWE Digital
The newly established and rapidly growing unit REWE Digital in
Cologne
pools all of the strategic and some of the operational online activities of REWE Group.
REWE Digital aims to become the leading provider of online solutions in all of the
markets relevant to REWE Group. Together with the business units, REWE Digital develops
omni-channel solutions and controls investments in and the management of participations
of REWE Group in digital ventures.
Berlin Technologie Holding
Berlin
Technologie Holding is
firmly based in
Berlin with a majority of their portfolio companies. They strongly believe in the values
Berlin represents: innovation, disruption, vitality and directness. BTH invests in tech
companies, yet, does not only provide capital, but also works in close partnerships with
their ventures and captures synergies across their portfolio. The managing partners and
founders of BTH Joern-Carlos Kuntze and Hans Kompernaß have been founders themselves and
belonged to the core team of many successful companies.
Grenke Bank AG
GRENKE BANK AG is a wholly owned subsidiary of GRENKELEASING AG
since
2009 and a member of the GRENKE Group. The GRENKE Group is a broadly diversified
provider
of IT-based >services in Small-Ticket-IT-Leasing, Factoring and Banking for small and
medium-sized companies. In addition, the GRENKE Bank offers its classic online services
also to private customers. The GRENKE Group is independent of vendors and banks and
holds
a leading market position in Europe in the field of small-ticket IT leasing for products
such as PCs, notebooks, copiers, printers >or software of relatively low asset value.
The
GRENKE Group operates in 30 countries and employs more than 1100 staff.
ALSTIN
ALSTIN is a private, long-term-oriented investment company within
the
Maschmeyer Group in Hannover. Its investment focus is on innovative, fast-growing
companies which dominate their markets. With many years of professional experience,
ALSTIN offers its portfolio companies valuable support in matters of business
development, add-on acquisitions and improvements of their marketing and sales efforts.
