Switzerland-based Fintech firm neon has reportedly secured 5 million CHF through a crowd investing campaign that lasted for less than an hour.
🚀 oder 🛸
Das war wirklich Wahnsinn. Wir sind überwältigt!
Der Staub setzt sich gerade und unser Adrenalin auch grad dazu….🙌💗 pic.twitter.com/jG7xSJj5Qd— neon (@neon_accountapp) June 28, 2021
Over 1,700 different investors invested within just an hour on Monday (June 29, 2021) and will now be getting shares in neon in the form of tokenized participation certificates (which are non-voting shares).
This development has come only a few weeks after the company acquired 7 million CHF from existing investors through a typical investment round.
Neon provides basic bank accounts that are managed by banking partner Hypothekarbank Lenzburg, with built-in deposit protection for funds up to 100,000 CHF per client.
neon – which has approximately 70,000 clients – recently expanded its range of services to include neon green, a sustainable account for Switzerland’s market.
As covered in August 2020, neon, a Switzerland-based challenger banking startup, scored €4.6 million through an investment round, which was supported by the existing investors, including Backbone Ventures, TX Group, the Schwyzer Kantonalbank innovation foundation and the “Höhle der Löwen” investors Roland Brack and Bettina Hein and the new investors Helvetia Venture Fund, QoQa Services SA, and other private investors.
As previously reported, Neon describes itself as an account on smartphones. The company noted its “mobile without limits.”
“Excessive fees, inflexible opening times, too much bureaucracy and complicated, slow apps. To us, it was clear: it can’t go on like that. That’s why we built neon.”
neon also noted it is a transaction account for everyday finances. There are no base fees, free Mastercard. All on smartphones and 100% independent. The company further revealed one year after the solution went live, the 30,000 customer mark was exceeded. Neon positions itself as the Swiss solution for a mobile, inexpensive, and easy-to-use smartphone account.
As reported earlier this month, neon secured 7 million CHF (appr. $7.78 million) from existing investors and has also launched a crowdfunding round for clients.
With 70,000 clients currently on board, neon is introducing equity crowdinvesting with tokenized non-voting shares which will reportedly be kept in a personal wallet. The Swiss digital asset platform Sygnum Bank is serving as the tokenization partner. As reported, Sygnum Bank, a licensed crypto-asset bank, has been founded on “Swiss and Singapore heritage” and operates globally.
Yves Collet, Chief Financial Officer at neon, stated (earlier this month):
“We can sense just how committed our users are to neon, so we’ve reserved an additional 1.5 million CHF for direct investments, after the financing round.”