Finom and Firma.de Give German Founders a Business Account Before Their Company is Registered 

Founders forming a GmbH or UG can have Firma.de handle the formation and open a Finom business account on notarised preliminary documents, before the commercial register entry, saving as much as 7 weeks of waiting. Founders who take a paid Finom plan can claim up to €200 off their Firma.de formation package.

AMSTERDAM / BERLIN, 24 September 2026 - Finom, the European financial platform for entrepreneurs serving 300,000+ businesses, and Firma.de, the German company formation pioneer, recently acquired by Openlaw, announce their partnership for founders incorporating a German business (GmbH and UG). Founders can now move through formation and business account opening as one connected path, instead of two processes that do not talk to each other.

The partnership in brief

• What it is: a connected route from company formation to a funded German business account, for founders forming a GmbH or UG (haftungsbeschränkt).
• What Firma.de does: handles the formation itself: company and shareholder details, documents, notary appointment.
• What Finom does: opens a business account on notarised preliminary documents, before the entry in the commercial register, provides the exact share-capital reference the notary requires, and issues the proof of deposit.
• The offer: founders who take out a Firma.de formation package and then subscribe to Finom can claim €150 back on Basic, or €200 back on Basic, Smart, Pro, Grow plans - paid by Firma.de.
• Availability: Germany, from 24 September 2026. For more visit here

Why founders get stuck at the deposit

Under German law a company cannot be entered in the commercial register until at least half of its statutory minimum share capital is in an account - at least €12,500 of the  €25,00 minimum required for a GmbH. Until that deposit is confirmed, the company is considered as a GmbH in Gründung: it can sign contracts and carry liability, but it cannot be registered to the commercial register.

This creates a circular wait. The notary needs proof of deposit to file. The deposit needs an account. And the account is often one of the hardest things to get for a company that doesn't yet officially exist - founders are asked for a commercial register extract they cannot have until the deposit is made. Founders Finom interviewed this summer described the same pattern: weeks lost between tax adviser, notary and account provider, several thousand euros of upfront cost with no clear total, and signed client contracts sitting unpaid because the company had no working account.

This partnership is designed to remove the circle. Founders open a Finom business account on their notarised preliminary documents, receive the payment reference the notary needs, transfer the share capital and download the proof of deposit, usually on the same day. Since January 2025, more than 11,000 companies in Germany have done exactly this, and around 55% of them received their first payment on the day the account opened - because the capital deposit cannot wait.

Start anywhere, finish with a business

Founders who begin their journey with Finom are handed to Firma.de for the formation; founders who start with Firma.de are sent to Finom for the account. The proof of deposit goes from Finom to the notary within the same journey; no second application, no re-uploading documents.

"Founding a company is a big moment - but, it’s often a confusing and expensive moment too, especially in Germany, where it normally takes 7 weeks to found a new company.” says Anna Mitchell, Head of New Bets Product of Finom. “We don’t think that’s right, starting your business should be exciting, which is why by partnering with Firma.de we’re helping more entrepreneurs get started faster."

Who is founding in Germany now

According to Openlaw, Firma.de's parent company, 41% of the founders it served in the past twelve months were international, 89% of them already living in Germany - with India, the UK, Turkey, China and Austria the most common nationalities outside Germany. GmbH was the dominant entity, followed by UG; IT and software, retail and e-commerce, and traditional services were the three most common sectors. The sharpest shift: AI-related companies grew from 8% to 32.6% of IT and software incorporations, a fourfold increase.

What changes for founders

The partnership is aimed at founders who want formation handled for them through a fully digital experience, up to the notary appointment: international founders, founders with holding structures or several shareholders, and first-time founders. Entrepreneurs who prefer to move through the steps themselves continue to open an account directly with Finom on preliminary documents.

"Firma.de has been forming companies for more than a decade, and the notary appointment is rarely where founders get stuck. The weeks after it are. Founders have signed documents but no account for the share capital, and client contracts sit waiting. With Finom, the account usually opens the same day, and the company goes straight on to the register," says Alexander Sporenberg, CEO of Openlaw, the parent company of firma.de.


About Finom

Finom is the all-in-one financial platform built for European entrepreneurs and SMEs, offering business accounts, multi-currency payments, cards, accounting, invoicing and expense management. Headquartered in the Netherlands, Finom serves 300,000+ businesses across Europe, holds an Electronic Money Institution licence issued by De Nederlandsche Bank (DNB), and is an official Visa card partner. Finom raised a €115M Series C in June 2025, bringing total funding to more than €300M. Learn more at finom.co.

About Firma.de

firma.de has helped founders in Germany set up GmbHs, UGs and other legal entities since 2012. Founders enter their company and shareholder details online. firma.de prepares the formation documents, arranges the notary appointment and takes the company through to its commercial register entry. Since June 2026, firma.de has been part of Openlaw, the Munich-based, Y Combinator-backed legal infrastructure company that also runs the digital notarisation platform beglaubigt.de. Together, the two brands handle around one in twenty incorporations in Germany. Learn more at firma.de.