The Berlin-based fintech Cure Finance thought it had raised just under three million euros from an investor. That was at the beginning of this year. But the sum never arrived at the startup, as Finance Forward and Finanz-Szene report. The consequences are severe: the Berlin fintech is now forced to file for insolvency.
Cure Finance offers banking software to medical practices to help manage practice finances. In a first round of funding in 2021, the startup said it raised more than one million euros for its venture, including from VR Ventures/Redstone, various family offices from Switzerland and Austria, and business angels.
In early January of this year, Cure Finance CEO and founder Martin Buhl had an appointment with a notary public. This was to seal the deal with the investor who wanted to invest another three million euros: Rio Pierre-Yves Dongour is the name of the businessman who wanted to take a stake in the fintech with his investment company “Perffin Invest AG”. Buhl relied on this notarization and then hired new people into the company. He planned to compete with Apobank, the established bank for pharmacists and doctors.
Nothing will come of it now. The Berlin-based fintech Cure Finance filed for insolvency because the investor’s money never appeared in their account. The ominous investor Dongour had put the startup off for months, writes the financial magazine.
Dongour did not open his company in Germany until 2022 – in Troisdorf, near Cologne. As Finance Forward reports from company circles, the entrepreneur had wanted to collect over 100 million euros for his fund. There had even been talk of IPOs.
In 2018, Dongour registered an investment company with the same name in the Netherlands. On the website of his investment company, it says that they want to bring in “above-average returns”. However, one searches in vain for previous investments.
The case raises a lot of questions. For example, whether the millions existed, why the money did not flow – and Dongour’s plan. Sascha Feies is the insolvency administrator in this case – and will now do what one does in an insolvency: sell the Berlin-based fintech, which specializes in banking for medical practices.
