Launched as a OptioPay cashback service provider, Optiopay is undergoing a fundamental transformation. The founders are leaving the fintech, a new CEO is taking over with a new business model and a new name. With the brand Clink, loyalty programs are to be linked to the bank account. The two founders Oliver Oster and Marcus Börner have raised more than 20 million euros from prominent investors. However, the original idea did not work out despite BaFin Lisence. Now they are making a fresh start.
The company has returned its BaFin license for an account information service (KID) and will cooperate with open banking provider Tink in the future.
OptioPay once started with an innovative model: banks, insurance companies and other companies should be able to make payouts in voucher form. For example, anyone who was to be reimbursed for a 100-euro claim for a stolen bicycle would instead receive a voucher for 110 euros at a bicycle store with the help of OptioPay. The fintech receives a commission for this.
The idea of the two founders Oliver Oster and Marcus Börner caught on with financiers, and a total of more than 20 million euros flowed into the startup, with the large Dutch insurer NN Group, the retail group Metro, and Commerzbank with its Main Incubator participating.
But the breakthrough was not achieved, even an open banking platform with its own Bafin license did not bring the hoped-for success. Now Optiopay is facing a radical new beginning: The founders have left the company, as Finanz Forward reported. Former CFO Naser Al-Shraydeh took the helm several months ago.
The new product Clink allows companies to launch a loyalty program themselves. They don’t need their own card, coupons, discount codes or apps for it, which customers forget about when in doubt. Instead, you link your bank account so the discount is automatically applied at the time of purchase, says Al-Shraydeh, who previously worked for Ebay and Deinauto, for example.
That way, multiple loyalty programs can be bundled onto one card. Companies can develop their own loyalty program or select an existing solution from Clink.
Existing backers continue to back the company and have now invested another seven-figure sum, with investors NN Group, Ilavska Vuillermoz Capital and EOS following suit. Business angels Carlo Kölzer and Tom Anthofer are also still on board. Many of the prominent former shareholders, however, are no longer on board – and neither are the founders. In the future, the supervisory board will consist of Leon Hooghof (NN Group), Carl Bauer from EOS and Laurent Hengesch from Ilavska Vuillermoz Capital. For the company, the second pivot may now be the last chance.
