1. Who are you?


My name is Julien Arnold. I started my career at the Hamburg-based venture capital fund Neuhaus Partners.

From there I went to Rocket Internet and built the business for Groupon in London. Lastly I was in charge as Chief Revenue Officer for the Home and Living channels and for the design of Dein Deal in Switzerland.

I am the founder of Numbrs and manage the strategic development as well as human resources and finance.

 

2. Which services do you sell and who are your competitors?


Numbrs is a multi-banking application. In a single, free and easy-to-use app, users can access all personal bank accounts – globally.

Numbrs supports not only traditional banking options such as “check account balances” and “make money transfers”, but also offers innovative features such as:

✦ Push-Notifications, once the salary arrives


✦ Suggestions for payments such as rent


✦ Automatic categorization


Moreover, Numbrs analyzes the past financial behaviour and makes projections for incomes and expenditures in the future. Numbrs therefore provides an overview of all past and future transactions.

Mint played a leading role in in the U.S. market in the area of personal financial management. However, we do not compare ourselves with a possible competitor. That is not our approach. We want to redefine the market.

 

3. How did you get your start-up idea and how did you finance your startup?


Numbrs was founded in September 2012 by Centralway – a company builder that establishes and expands online ventures. As the parent company Centralway provides all the necessary resources such as office space, financing, controlling, recruitment etc. but above all know-how. So Numbrs can completely focus on the product development and marketing.

 

4. What were the biggest challenges in starting?


All obstacles that start-ups usually struggle with – like raising capital, finding office space, hosting, hiring professionals, etc. – Centralway took care of. This really simplified and accelerated our daily work.

Nevertheless, there were still many hurdles to overcome. But if you go this route with a strong partner like Centralway backing you, this simplifies things a lot.

 

5. What areas within FinTech do you personally find most interesting and why?


PFM and payment are the major blocks in Numbrs. We do not see ourselves belonging to any particular group, but rather want to define our own space. Numbrs provides a way to easily manage the finances, and additionally trigger the action of a payment. So we operate between these two areas, which of course have my full focus.

 

6. What opportunities do you see for FinTech startups in the DACH region, and how can we help to accelerate it?


The FinTech market in the DACH region and throughout Europe is still behind the U.S./American market.

In the U.S., many startups in the FinTech space have developed into established companies. Examples are Mint or Check in personal finance management area and Square or Simple in payment and banking.

There is pent-up demand for Numbrs in Europe and we try to take a leading role.

For Europe, the development of a strong VC landscape with specialization in FinTech area is important – not only from a financial perspective but also to bring expertise in startups. At Numbrs we have a very strong and experienced partner in our parent company Centralway.

 

7. What tip would you like to give FinTech entrepreneurs?


Never compromise.