A marketplace for bank deposits

The service is designed to make it easier for businesses and banks to connect. The digital marketplace gives investors an overview of banks where they could place their money, while giving banks access to a larger market of potential customers.

'This solution opens the door to new relationships and helps streamline a market that was previously cumbersome and rigid. You can complete the entire process of becoming a customer of a new bank and making a deposit in less than ten minutes,' says Fixrate founder and CEO Brynjar Ellingsen.

The fintech company needed funding to bring its idea to life and develop the service, so it contacted us when it launched in 2016. Since then, it has received several forms of funding from us, including startup loans, regional development grants, innovation grants and innovation loans.

In 2020, we awarded the company an extraordinary innovation grant, which helped secure a NOK 19.5 million investment in Fixrate from Schibsted Growth.

'Talks with investors came to a halt because of the coronavirus pandemic, and we awarded the innovation grant because Fixrate had to wait for investment. Our grant, combined with the company’s new pricing model, enabled them to retain their employees and maintain their growth rate until investors returned. This ultimately led to a share issue in January 2021. It shows that the innovation grant met a real need during the extraordinary year of 2020,' says Reidar Milan Hegle, Customer Relationship Manager at our Trøndelag office.

'We focus on sales and business, and try to avoid anything that does not drive growth. We continuously digitalise our processes and hire people to handle tasks that are becoming too much for the existing team,' Ellingsen explains.

Fixrate's main market is currently Norway, but the company aims to expand internationally.

'If we can create efficient processes, there is nothing stopping us from reaching a market worth more than NOK 100 billion in Norway. If we expand internationally, ten times the size of the Norwegian market would be a conservative estimate,' says Ellingsen.

Initially, they are targeting neighbouring countries. If they can establish partnerships with the banks, the market potential is significant.

'The concept is simple: to make an inefficient market more efficient. Several countries have markets similar to Norway's, and we are confident that we can succeed internationally. This matters both for businesses and for the welfare state – so why shouldn't we be able to do it just as well as a company from elsewhere in the world?' Ellingsen asks rhetorically.

To date, Fixrate has facilitated the placement of several billion Norwegian kroner with banks. The Steinkjer-based company now has 55 banks and around 200 businesses on its customer list. Most of the banks are local and regional savings banks, while the investors are primarily well-known companies or sizeable public-sector organisations. Examples include Protector ASA, Norges Råfisklag, Bergen Municipality and NEL Hydrogen ASA. These are large organisations that sometimes have surplus liquidity they want to invest.