Exclusive: After a break with the parent company, Auto1 Fintech continues to work on its restart. The Berlin company is now planning to secure a loan through token financing.
The vehicle financier Auto1 Fintech issues a digital security, it is a so-called Security Token Offering (STO), as the company announces. The company plans to collect a total of four million euros. The subordinated loan is aimed at professional financiers, they can invest from a value of 200,000 euros, and because of this amount, the company does not need a securities prospectus. The offering runs through Ive.one, the investment platform of the Frankfurt fintech Agora Innovation.
Auto1 Fintech needs the loan for its product: It is aimed at car dealers and finances the purchase price of vehicles in advance – until they can resell the car. According to the company, the token is an addition to the banks’ existing lines of credit. Due to its short term of one year and the interest rate of five percent, the offer is “particularly attractive”, says Managing Director Taimur Andre Rashid in an interview with Finance Forward. The STO structure is intended to simplify financing. It remains to be seen whether the investors will pick up. Further blockchain projects are to follow.
The break with Hakan Koç is followed by a fresh start
The young company has had an eventful start: it was founded in 2018 by its parent company Auto1, the insurer Allianz, Deutsche Bank and investors. “That can be very, very big,” said Auto1 boss Hakan Koç at the time. But then, after a dispute between the shareholders, Auto1 and Auto1 Fintech broke up. The entrepreneur Bensen Safa has since held the majority in the company, Deutsche Bank and Allianz have left.
Originally, the startup was supposed to offer dealers financing through the Auto1 platform, which brings car buyers and sellers together. Auto1 Fintech kept the name and has since tried a single reboot, while Auto1 recently went public.
At the end of last year it found a new partner in Solarisbank. According to its own statements, Auto1 Fintech now has “numerous vehicle dealers in several European countries”. He does not want to comment on the ongoing brand dispute between the fintech and the former parent company Auto1. Auto1 still has a 6.2 percent stake in the startup.
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