Contis Brand Retires Following Embedded Finance Merger With Solaris

Following last year’s merger with Solaris, the Contis brand is being retired.

In a press release on Tuesday (Dec. 6), Solaris wrote that the Banking-as-a-Service (BaaS) provider Contis will now operate under the Solaris name.

“Solaris has established itself as the leading platform for embedded finance in Europe. Combining our forces under the Solaris umbrella enables us to deliver the widest range of financial services within one strong brand across Europe,” Roland Folz, CEO of Solaris, said.

Solaris, formerly known as Solarisbank, acquired Contis in July last year, giving the German company a foothold in the U.K.

Since then, Solaris has been working to integrate Contis’ platform into its own embedded finance offering and combine teams from the previously separate businesses.

“Our integration provides prospects and existing partners with a seamless point of entry to access combined solutions from across the group in a straightforward way with unmatched capabilities,” Lee Johnstone, who was previously managing director at Solaris before taking on the role at the merged entity, said.

Via the merger, Solaris gained an e-money license in the U.K. to add to its EU licenses in Germany and Lithuania.

In recent years, the firm has emerged as an important player in the European BaaS market and has picked up clients including Amex, Binance, Samsung and Paycell. The Berlin-based company helps corporations build embedded finance solutions for their customers.

In a recently published PYMNTS eBook, What’s Your Plan? Payments Strategies for a Strong 2022 Finish, embedded finance emerged as one of the biggest growing trends identified by the contributors.

“Companies embed financial experiences into their propositions to increase customer convenience and reduce friction. In doing so, they strengthen their overall customer relevance, create deeper relationships and generate new revenue streams,” wrote Taira Hall, senior vice president for banking, payments and FinTech at FIS.

Seth McGuire, chief revenue officer at Galileo, shared that although the initial embedded finance boom was fueled by business-to-customer solutions, “B2B businesses are quickly following the trend.”

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