CEO Carsten Höltkemeyer and CRO Ansgar Finken step down from their Management Board positions following the conclusion of Solaris’ transformation phase. Steffen Jentsch and Matthias Heinrich join as CEO and CRO respectively from flatexDEGIRO.
Berlin, Germany — 30 December 2025. Solaris, Europe’s leading embedded finance platform, today announced a leadership transition within its Management Board following a coordinated succession process in recent months. The change follows SBI’s acquisition of a majority stake in Solaris as part of the €140 million Series G funding round in February 2025.
Carsten Höltkemeyer, Chief Executive Officer of Solaris, stepped down from his position at the end of 2025. He will remain available in an advisory capacity to support a structured transition. Under Höltkemeyer’s leadership, Solaris completed its transformation — building regulatory resilience, securing sustainable funding, migrating the ADAC credit card portfolio to the Solaris platform, and optimizing the partner and product portfolio — placing the company on a path to profitable growth.
He will be succeeded by Steffen Jentsch. Throughout his career, Jentsch has held senior leadership roles in the financial industry. Since 2017, he has served as Chief Information Officer and Chief Process Officer at flatexDEGIRO AG and flatexDEGIRO Bank AG, joining the Management Board in 2020. Prior to his time at flatexDEGIRO, he was a member of the Management Board at Atruvia AG (formerly Fiducia & GAD IT AG), the IT service provider for the German cooperative banking sector. Jentsch brings a proven track record in scaling digital financial platforms, along with deep expertise in regulatory transformation and digital banking solutions.
I’m truly excited to join Solaris and lead the next chapter — one defined by durable growth built on regulatory strength and commercial execution. Digital B2B2C platforms thrive when cutting-edge technology, cloud-native infrastructure, and strong compliance frameworks work seamlessly together. Solaris has been a first mover in embedded finance and has helped shape the market across Europe. This momentum will accelerate with our AI-supported banking modules, easily embedded via our API-first Solaris architecture. I look forward to contributing to this journey, from transformation to sustainable, profitable growth.Steffen Jentsch, designated CEO Solaris SE.
Additionally, Ansgar Finken, Chief Risk Officer, will be stepping down from the Management Board. Finken was also leading the finance and technology area within the bank. He will remain available in an advisory capacity.
Finken will be succeeded by Matthias Heinrich, former Chief Risk Officer and Member of the Executive Board at flatexDEGIRO Bank AG. Heinrich brings extensive international experience across the financial services industry. He has a proven track record in managing retail portfolios and leading complex, regulatory-driven remediation and transformation projects. His career includes senior leadership roles at Raiffeisen-Landesbank Steiermark, Santander Consumer Bank, and Bayerische Hypo- und Vereinsbank.
I am honored to join Solaris at such a pivotal moment in its evolution. In the digital age, a robust and forward-looking risk management framework is the bedrock of trust and the primary driver for sustainable scaling. Steffen and I were a great team in the past to solve regulatory challenges, I’m excited to have the opportunity to continue that teamwork at Solaris. My focus will be on combining strategic foresight with operational excellence to ensure our platform remains resilient while navigating an ever-changing regulatory environment. I look forward to working with the team to leverage our data-driven capabilities, ensuring that Solaris continues to be the most secure and reliable partner for embedded finance in Europe.Matthias Heinrich, designated CRO Solaris SE.
On behalf of the Supervisory Board, I thank Carsten and Ansgar for their dedication in steering Solaris through a challenging period and laying a solid foundation for the company’s next chapter. With Steffen and Matthias, we welcome two highly experienced financial leaders as our new Management Board. We look forward to working together to make Solaris a driving force in Europe’s embedded finance market, utilizing German and Japanese expertise.Yasuhiro Fujiki, Chairman of the Supervisory Board.
Yoshitaka Kitao, Representative Director, Chairman, President & CEO of SBIHD, underlines Solaris’ strategic value for the majority shareholder SBI.
Solaris holds a unique and cornerstone position within our European portfolio. We believe in the future of embedded finance and are proud to continue to shape the future of European digital banking together with the new management. The organization is exceptionally well positioned to spearhead this next wave of financial innovation.Yoshitaka Kitao, Representative Director, Chairman, President & CEO of SBIHD.