finperks, a Berlin-based FinTech startup building the API infrastructure layer for the global prepaid market, has raised €3.4 million ($4 million) in a pre-Seed funding round.
The round was led by Motive Partners and seed+speed Ventures. This new capital will be utilised to expand the engineering team, strengthen brand partnerships, and scale operations across further European markets.
“Banks need cashback to retain and engage users. HR Platforms need benefits as a logical extension to upsell clients. None of them want to build prepaid infrastructure. They want to plug into it,” said Sebastian Seifert, co-Founder and Co-CEO.
finperk was established in 2025 by Achim Bönsch, Sebastian Seifert, and Andreas Veller. The trio previously built Barzahlen/viafintech, the largest bank-independent cash network in Europe and the US, which was acquired by NYSE-listed Paysafe in a nine-figure deal in 2021.
The company states that although consumer interest in digital rewards, cashback, and employee benefits keeps rising, the foundational infrastructure is still fragmented and outdated.
According to the German startup, Banks, FinTech, and HR Platforms that want to offer prepaid products today must integrate multiple vendors across issuing, brand relationships, settlement and compliance. This results in slow, regionally limited launches and poor user experience.
finperks claims to simplify this complexity by offering a single API. With one integration, its partners can access over 1,000 brands across Europe, allowing for: brand-funded cashback paid directly into bank accounts, digital employee benefits like Germany’s €50/month tax-free “Sachbezug”, and instant digital gift cards integrated into financial products.
In a LinkedIn post announcing the launch of finperk, Seifert mentioned, “The prepaid payments industry is a massive €1.2 trillion ($1.4 trillion), double-digit growing market, yet outdated and slow-moving. For many major brands, prepaid products have become the second most used payment method at checkout. But behind the scenes, the system is far from efficient: between brand and merchant, there are often five or more intermediaries.
“Like cash has been in our first venture, prepaid is an often hidden and underestimated product – but it addresses real needs: budget control, easy access to meaningful perks (e.g. tax-free benefits), and financial empowerment (e.g. cashbacks). We see a massive opportunity to modernise and expand this space.”
The company reports that six months after launch, it has already gone live across multiple platforms. Payment app Flizpay utilises finperks to offer brand-funded cashback averaging 5%, which is paid instantly into users’ bank accounts at the point of purchase.
HR platforms Recardy and Paylo use finperks to distribute Germany’s tax-free employee benefits without needing extra infrastructure on their end.
Read the orginal article: https://www.eu-startups.com/2026/03/ex-viafintech-founders-new-venture-finperks-raises-e3-4-million-pre-seed-to-build-the-stripe-for-prepaid/
