The neobank claims it is not reinventing the wheel. Rather it adds uniqueness to existing bank offerings:
Neobank Vivid Money states on its website, ‘We combine the worlds of banking and investing in one single mobile app and believe dealing with finances should be easy and accessible for everyone. We are on the way to making it real for everyone in Europe’.
In Germany, Vivid Money is called a smartphone bank. Founded in 2019 by former employees of Tinkoff Bank of Russia, Alexander Emeshev and Artem Yamanov, the neobank has innovative offers like a cashback program and commission-free investing in shares, ETFs, and cryptocurrencies. Designed as a competitor for established neobanks like N26 and Revolut, Vivid Money is now available in France, Spain, and Italy besides Germany. It has more than 100,000 customers.
2 DISTINCT ACCOUNTS
A Vivid Money customer has an option of 2 accounts – a free account, called Vivid Standard, and a fee-based account, called Vivid Prime. A customer of the latter has to pay 9.9 euros per month as a fee. Both the accounts offer a free metal card and a customer can create up to 15 sub-accounts, which the neobank calls ‘Pockets’ with separate IBANs free of charge, using the Vivid app. In both accounts, customers can receive cashback on daily purchases or from certain providers (the bank describes this as ‘super deals’) . Vivid Prime has more features that are geared more towards power users.
UNIQUE CASH BACK
As against the marketing strategy of either traditional banks or even some of the neobanks, like a vast branch network or the convenience of personal advice, Vivid Money offers just smart features. For example, its ‘Pockets’ allow a customer to open a new sub-account with IBAN in less than a minute and share it with friends and acquaintances if necessary. Similarly, there is the unique cashback program, which allows one to earn money while spending money. It is, however, not a cash transaction in the true sense, as the customer receives a percentage of what he had spent (normally from 0.2% to 25%) as cashback, which is automatically invested in shares of the customer’s choice. The customer can stay invested and get the returns credited to his account at an appropriate time of his choice.
EASY ACCOUNT OPENING
One can open a Vivid Money current account using the Vivid app without any paperwork in just a few minutes. Two features that may sound not very customer friendly is that there is no overdraft facility whatsoever and cash withdrawals are free only up to €200 per month (Vivid Standard) or €1000 per month (Vivid Prime). Beyond these limits, there is a fee of 3% of the amount withdrawn. Another major drawback is that cash deposits are not possible.
Vivid app offers a unique feature. All the income and expenses of the customers are recorded and categorized in detail in the app. This gives a customer a precise overview of his or her finances and his income from the cashback program at any time, with push notifications in real time. One can also set maximum amounts for individual categories (like for example, groceries or online shopping) and be notified when one is approaching the set limit.
CHIC METAL CARD
The card that Vivid Money offers its customers is a VISA card with a chic metal look. As a debit card, however, it works just like a checking card – payments are debited promptly and not collected on a monthly statement. Unlike normal credit cards, there is no card number, no expiry date and no verification number on the card. This data is actually available in the app. So if you lose your card, you don’t have to worry about it falling into the wrong hands.
Vivid Money offers the digital current account in cooperation with solarisBank, which has a banking licence from the European Central Bank and is subject to the usual regulations for banks in Germany. solarisBank does not offer accounts for end consumers as its business model is rather based on providing banking services to companies.
As a startup, Vivid Money has raised €100 million , in a Series C round of funding. The funding values the firm at €775 million. This is more than double the company’s valuation (€360 million) when it last raised money, a €60 million round in April 2021. Its user base also increased five-fold in that period, and its revenues grew 25x. It also aims to expand to 5 more countries immediately and would be available across all of Europe by the end of 2023.
What is unique about Vivid Money is that it does not try to reinvent the wheel and is building its products on top of well-established players. The neobank is perhaps entering a crowded market but there are several things that are unique about it.
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This article has been compiled based on publicly available information on the web, particularly the bank’s own website.
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