One of Switzerland’s most-promising fintech startups is merging with a Dutch partner. The founder and chief executive is leaving the company.
Swiss digital insurance broker Knip has agreed to merge with Komparu, a Dutch technology firm. Together they will operate as Digital Insurance Group (DIG), according to a joint statement.
Knip and Komparu already cooperated since the end of last year, as was reported by finews.ch.
Expansionary Quest
The companies didn’t disclose the details of the agreement. The merger with Knip will enable Komparu to offer comprehensive end-to-end solutions to its customers and to expand the geographic reach.
Knip, which operated in Switzerland and Germany, by contrast wants to extend its reach to the entire European market, where it sees a potential of 1.1 billion euros.
Knip CEO to Leave
The founder and CEO of Knip, Dennis Just (pictured below), won’t stay at the company. His founding partner at Knip, Christina Kehl, had already departed in spring of 2016.
The Dutch partners will take the lead in the new company. Roeland Werring, co-founder of Komparu, will be the Group chief technical officer, while Ruben Troostwijk will stay on as CEO of Komparu. Ingo Weber was appointed as CEO of DIG. Weber used to be a managing director at Swiss Re and GE Insurance.
Investors Remain on Board
The investors Orange Growth Capital, Route 66, Red Alpine and QED supported and financed the transaction. DIG will have about 70 employees. The teams are said to complement each other and there was no mention of a job cut.
Signs are that the agreement is more of a takeover by the Dutch, marking the end of a chapter of Swiss fintech history.
Politicians on Visit
Knip was widely seen as an example for others to follow for Swiss fintechs and attracted substantial investment. The broker in 2015 received 15 million francs, the biggest such round of financing a Swiss fintech had attracted at the time. The Swiss president of 2016, Johann Schneider-Ammann, had paid a visit to Knip and was informed about the potential of the fintech industry.
The company however had strong rivals in the established insurance industry and also had to cope with competition from the traditional brokerage businesses, according to media reports.
It is not possible to verify how successful Knip was in recent quarters. The merger is a reminder of how tough it can be for a fintech to make a business idea come to fruition.
