A Franco-German alliance has formed with Linxo and Raisin teaming up to target the European savings sector, reports Antony Peyton of Fintech Futures (sister publication of Finovate).

Linxo, a smart financial assistant from France, and Berlin-based financial marketplace Raisin said via their collaboration 1.6 million Linxo users will get access to a choice of savings accounts across the continent.

Bruno Van Haetsdaele, co-founder of Linxo, said with the “impetus of the Payment Services Directive (PSD2), we will now be able to create a harmonised approach in Europe” and the partnership “reflects our desire to create an open European ecosystem of financial services directly accessible from Linxo whatever the European country you live in”.

Tamaz Georgadze, founder of Raisin, said with Linxo, a French citizen can open a term savings account in Austria, Portugal or the Czech Republic “while benefiting” from the respective national deposit guarantee scheme in all EU countries that covers invested capital of up to €100,000 per customer and per bank.

Established in 2013, Raisin said it works with more than 40 banks and financial institutions. To date, more than 100,000 European customers have invested over €5 billion via its platform. It said it operates country-specific platforms in Germany, France, Spain and Austria, as well as its European platform.

Linxo is available on mobile devices and the internet. The start-up was launched in 2010 by Van Haetsdaele, an engineer at Stanford Research Institute and former CTO and co-founder of Wimba, a start-up devoted to on-line education, and Hugues Pisapia (formerly of Wimba and the initiator of the Linxo project). Based in Aix-en-Provence, Linxo demonstrated its PFM platform at FinovateEurope 2011. The company has raised more than $26 million in funding (€23.2 million) and includes Crédit Agricole, Crédit Mutuel Arkéa and MAIF among its investors.