Behind the Scenes: Savedo
Behind the Scenes at: Savedo!
Picture this: fourth floor, high ceilings, glass doors, a couple of couches and a small kitchen hidden in the corner. People are busily coming in to work for the day while others are drinking their first cup of coffee. It’s not only a place where new ideas are developed, but also where new friends are made. Welcome to Savedo!
Savedo is a European online marketplace for retail investment products. Headquartered in Berlin, a team of over 50 people from 20+ nationalities creates opportunities for investors to deposit their savings safely and at attractive interest rates. The company operates as a portal for banks to enter new European markets and thus, gain access to other customer groups. Savedo’s platform allows banks to list their products while customers can access them from abroad. In addition to that, Savedo provides customer support in different languages and paperless processes to provide efficient and customer-centric services. The company continues developing every day – last week, a new asset class of precious metals was launched. Private retail investors can now easily buy gold and silver on the Savedo website and have it stored in a duty free, secure vault in Switzerland at low annual storage costs. On top of that, the process has been made to be super easy and finished in just three steps.
Led by founders Christian Tiessen and Dr. Steffen Wachenfeld, Savedo was launched in December 2014 as FinLeap’s first venture. Since then, the startup has become almost completely independent. The company overcame some challenges with their first bank, but close to two years after the launch, things are getting better and better. Thus, Savedo is currently active in Germany, Austria, and the Netherlands. Savedo’s prosperity is also shown by numbers: it currently has eight partner banks throughout Germany, Portugal, Croatia and the Czech Republic including FinLeap’s tech company with a banking license solarisBank.
Savedo strikes everyone with their commitment to a mission. Since the very beginning, the aim has been to become an online retail investment platform – a somewhat of a personal financial tool that one can not only monitor and manage, but also use to invest in products in a smart way. Inside its departments, the company has allowed for a bottom to top structure – where employees can have a say in choosing their own projects. It gives the ability to take ownership and bring a project from the very beginning to the very end. All departments work closely together to ensure clear communication on all levels. The management is always open to new ideas and ready to make quick, tactical changes that will bring the company forward.
Savedo is not only unique because of its internal structure, but also because of its way of approaching the market. Every product that the company offers is tested multiple times through constant user interaction. The user experience team works with the customer service and product departments to guarantee a premium product. On the other side, Savedo tries to really dig deep into every partnership to truly understand each bank. The company has no standard pitch – every partnership is individually tailored to provide the best fit for collaboration between the bank and Savedo.
Most importantly, Savedo is unique because of its people. The Savedo office if filled with an energetic, friendly atmosphere where it never gets boring and everyone is treated respectfully. The entire team is working towards making the company great, but is also focusing on maintaining a warm social connection with each other. All employees are loyal towards Savedo and are ready to take action whenever needed. New hires feel welcomed from the very first day – inspired to fit in and learn more about the Fintech world. From spontaneous team events to planned trips, the Savedo team has gotten to know each other well which has allowed the company to work without unneeded friction.
A great company with a great team, proving that We Have the Technology!