Berlin fintech Moss reaches unicorn status with €1 billion valuation

Berlin-based fintech Moss has joined the ranks of "unicorns" - start-ups valued at more than €1 billion - after raising €30 million in a new funding round, chief executive and co-founder Ante Spittler told Wednesday's edition of the Handelsblatt business newspaper.

The latest round of funding - that pushed its valuation to exactly €1 billion - was led by Canadian investor Portage, the fintech arm of investment firm Sagard. Existing backers also participated in the round. 

Despite a difficult market environment, Moss has impressed with revenue growth of 65% and plans to use the fresh capital primarily to develop new artificial intelligence (AI) agents designed to further automate financial processes at mid-sized companies.

Moss was initially backed by the local venture capital firm Cherry Ventures, with Berlin's Global Founders Capital - the investment vehicle of Rocket Internet - coming on board shortly after the company's founding in 2019. 

The first major funding round, a Series A in 2021, was led by Valar Ventures, the fund of controversial Silicon Valley entrepreneur Peter Thiel. Thiel was thus the first major international investor to recognize the potential of Moss, which was then still called Vanta.

The rise of Moss to unicorn status is being seen by experts as a positive signal for Germany's start-up scene as a whole after sentiment among venture capital investors had recently cooled somewhat. 

Nevertheless, other German start-ups have also recently achieved billion-euro valuations for the first time, including mobility firm Finn and robotics company Neura Robotics.