Scale-up Direct: KfW Capital invests in Pliant alongside SpeedInvest

KfW Capital is investing in Pliant alongside its portfolio partner Speedinvest through the Scale-up Direct programme. The investment is being made as part of the venture capital pillar of the Deutschlandfonds and represents a further direct investment by KfW Capital via the new co-investment programme.

Payments optimized

Pliant is a modular, API-first B2B payment platform headquartered in Berlin. It combines commercial card issuing, payment accounts, foreign exchange and spend management for corporates and financial institutions. It can be easily integrated to existing banking and ERP systems and can issue virtual and physical cards in minutes, with automated receipt capture and expense workflows built in.

Through this investment, KfW Capital, together with Speedinvest, is supporting the company’s further scaling up.

Lars Glenewinkel, Investment Manager, KfW Capital: “With a modular, API-based infrastructure, Pliant is modernizing B2B payments and bringing much-needed automation to the corporate payment industry. The Series C will fuel the next phase of growth and support the expansion in Europe and the US. We are impressed by the strength of the product and the company’s development and are looking forward to supporting this German FinTech success story together with our longstanding partner Speedinvest.”

Malte Rau, Co-founder, Chief Executive Officer, Pliant: “Pliant has been API-first and modular from day one, and we have adopted AI deeply — in our product and in how we run the company. With KfW Capital joining, we can open more of our infrastructure directly to AI agents and build the payment platform for the next generation of businesses.”

Dr. Tom Filip Lesche, Partner, Speedinvest: “Pliant is an exceptionally rare breed: it has consistently outperformed its targets for years and grown into a German fintech that is winning in the US. The founders, Malte Rau and Fabian Terner, recognized the need for API-based credit card infrastructure well ahead of the market. Building that infrastructure is hard, and their early head start has turned into a multi-year lead. We’re delighted to give KfW Capital, our long-standing partner, direct exposure to an opportunity of this caliber.”

Scale-up Direct strengthens Europe’s technology leaders

The investment is being made through the Scale-up Direct programme, which forms part of the venture capital pillar of the Deutschlandfonds. The Deutschlandfonds mobilises private capital to strengthen Germany’s competitiveness and future viability. Scale-up Direct supports innovative, high-growth technology companies in strategically important future-oriented sectors in successfully financing their next phase of growth.

With its investment in Pliant KfW Capital is continuing to focus on companies that, aims to mobilise private capital and strengthen the financing of technology companies in strategically important future-oriented sectors.

Sonja Höpfner
Spokeswoman and communications manager

Tel: +49 69 7431 4396