German Fintech Startup Cringle Exceeds Companisto Goal by 335%

Co-founded by Joschka Friedag, Malte Klussmann,  Konrad Maruszewski and Frane Bandov, Cringle, celebrating 336% overfunding on Companisto, is a smartphone app used to send money quickly to friends in Europe. By cooperating with the user’s principal bank, the app guarantees one’s bank’s normal high security standards. Cringle counts the Deutsche Kreditbank AG (DKB) as a partner. Over 780 investors have backed this latest fintech app, investing over 336,974€ in the campaign for 8.89% share offered.  The startups funding goal is 400K€, which seems attainable with 9 days remaining on the campaign.

By June 2016, the app was downloaded over 35,000 times and used to transfer 900K€. In a recent update, Cringle has been evaluating how to make the payment process quicker between users:

“The act of transferring money should be as simple as sending a text message. Most finance apps require the user to complete a complex and complicated registration process. The user has to provide an abundance of information, often including name, address, phone number, email address, password, PIN number, and last but not least, bank details and verification. In this case, the critical issue is the complex process of providing bank details. In order to overcome this problem, we have been dealing closely with this process and have tested several alternatives in an A/B test.”

The platform tested its new direct registration “Cringle Connect” in a second A/B test, a method that enables users to add their bank account directly by logging onto their online banking system and verifying it in the same step. The other alternative requires the user to manually type in their IBAN and the account holder. In this case, the verification is completed by means of a 1-cent-transaction. 1-2 days later, the user is requested to type in a 6-digit verification code from the intended purpose of the transaction into the app in order to activate the account.

The results:

“The acceptance of registering with Cringle Connect was much higher than initially expected. Over 70 % of users used this approach for adding their bank account. These users also proved more likely to carry out a transaction. Our second biggest surprise was the fact that many users were willing to provide their complete bank details during the registration process,” noted the Berlin-based platform. “We finally came to the decision that we would offer both alternatives. Users are now requested to sign into their online banking systems during the registration process. The alternative allowing you to manually type in your details will also be an option. It is now possible to register in under 60 seconds.”

Ultimately, Cringle reported that after completing this test phase, a 50% uptick in new registrations was recorded. For more detailed financial and campaign information about Cringle, please click here.