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Despite prominent investors like Mario Götze, the start-up Ride Capital had to file for bankruptcy – and caused an uproar. Now the company is taking massive action.
Berlin – The insolvency The digital private bank Ride Capital from Berlin has caused a stir in the German start-up world in recent days. The company had become known primarily through its prominent investors, including the German football player Mario Gotzewhich has already invested in several domestic and international start-ups. Now Ride Capital Ippen Digital new information: Since the insolvency became known, the company has been contacted by potential buyers – the interest of investors in Ride Capital is great.
Insolvent start-up Ride Capital separates from two managing directors
The insolvency of RIDE GmbH was announced by the court in Charlottenburg in Berlin last Friday, September 6, 2024, and lawyer Dr. Björn Gehde was appointed as provisional insolvency administrator. Three managing directors are still listed in the publicly available announcement of the insolvency: Christine Kiefer, Felix Schulte and Samed Yilmaz.
Now, according to the statement, Ride GmbH will only be represented by Samed Yilmaz and the appointed provisional insolvency administrator Dr. Björn Gehde: “After careful examination and detailed consultation, the Supervisory Board has unanimously decided to remove Christine Kiefer and Felix Schulte from their positions as managing directors and to part ways with them with immediate effect.”
Ride Capital insolvency: Several “well-known” investors express interest
The insolvency resulted from deviations in financial planning that were only recently discovered. “Therefore, an investigation was initiated by external experts to examine these deviations,” says the e-mail statement to Ippen DigitalThe suspicion of possible insolvency was subsequently confirmed.
Nevertheless, Ride Capital is said to be on solid ground. The company is confident that Ride Capital will continue to exist. Therefore, the entire team continues to work “intensively on the operational business” to ensure that the interests of customers are protected – under new management.
In a recent press release from the company, it is announced that the company could be continued in a new corporate form in the future: “Within a few days, several substantial offers and letters of commitment have been received from well-known investors and established market participants. Further purchase offers are in preparation. Ride is already negotiating intensively with interested parties.” Previous prominent investors of the start-up have included football player Mario Götze, as well as the entrepreneurs Lea-Sophie Cramer (Amorelie founder) and Verena Pausder (CEO of the startup association), who invested around three million euros with other investors. In total, since the company was founded in 2020, according to Handelsblatt even collected a total of eight million euros.
In Germany, more and more companies are sliding into insolvency, and now it has hit a well-known Berlin start-up. © Sascha Steinach/Imago
What happens to customers’ deposits?
According to Ride Capital’s website, the company makes it easy to set up asset management GmbHs. To date, over 1,500 GmbHs have been set up and Ride Capital currently manages more than 700 million euros. In addition, over 265 tax offices use the company’s securities accounting. The start-up aims to make asset management GmbHs accessible to a broad target group for tax optimization – not just for wealthy people, and without a lot of bureaucratic effort.
Ride Capital’s product portfolio focuses on the establishment and management of asset management GmbHs and UGs. The specialized broker also wants to facilitate trading for company accounts in order to minimize accounting work. According to Ride Capital, the deposits of broker customers are held with the custodian partner banks Interactive Brokers or FXFlat Bank and are therefore not affected by the insolvency proceedings.
