In this episode, Marcel Meitza, founder and CEO of GetMomo, shares how his Berlin-based vertical fintech is building the "operating system for European real estate." Marcel explains how GetMomo solves a critical inefficiency in property management: the manual, time-consuming process of tracking rent payments, deposits, and allocating funds across hundreds of accounts. With a background in banking and consulting at BCG, Marcel identified a €30+ billion opportunity in Germany alone, where the average property manager oversees 900 units but relies on outdated spreadsheets and manual workflows. GetMomo now serves property managers ranging from 100 to 45,000 units under management, partnering with German banks to offer deposit accounts, virtual IBANs, and automated payment reconciliation, all while integrating seamlessly with existing property management ERPs.
Why Property Management Needs Vertical Fintech Solutions
- The average German property manager oversees 900 units and hundreds of bank accounts, spending most of their time on manual payment allocation and data entry
- 20% of the property management workforce will retire in the next five years, creating a sustainability crisis rather than a growth opportunity
- The core challenge isn't finding tenants or maintaining buildings; it's extracting banking data and importing it into ERP systems efficiently
- GetMomo positions itself as a "fintech plugin" that sits on top of existing ERPs, eliminating the need for costly system migrations
- Property managers have typically stayed with the same bank for 15 years before switching, making trust and ease of implementation critical
Building Banking Infrastructure for Real Estate
- GetMomo offers a full banking suite: deposit accounts, rental accounts, condominium accounts, reserve accounts for renovations, and credit products
- The platform automates the entire deposit workflow: when a tenant is created in the ERP, GetMomo automatically creates a deposit account and tracks installment payments
- Virtual IBANs enable automatic payment reconciliation, saving hours of manual work per week
- Unlike traditional banking as a service plays, GetMomo integrates directly with niche German banks specialized in real estate
- This integration complexity creates a moat; the technical expertise to work with traditional banks rather than modern BaaS providers gives GetMomo a competitive advantage
Why German Banking Partnerships Were Non-Negotiable
- Real estate is deeply traditional, and GetMomo's early challenge was overcoming the "since when are you operating?" question
- Property managers demanded German bank partners with recognized deposit insurance schemes; foreign providers were rejected despite having superior products
- Deutsche Bank's decision to terminate property management contracts during negative interest periods burned bridges that remain unforgettable in the industry
- GetMomo works exclusively with German banks like VVRB and SWK Bank, prioritizing financial stability and willingness to "go the extra mile"
- The partner selection process focused less on brand recognition and more on reputation within the real estate community and speed of implementation
The Modular Go-to-Market Strategy
- GetMomo's pitch centers on plug and play simplicity: property managers can start with one product (like deposits) without migrating everything at once
- The biggest objection isn't trust in the product; it's fear of implementation complexity after past painful ERP migrations
- Onboarding focuses on proving value to employees across age ranges, with senior staff often surprised by how "self-explanatory" the software is
- Customer expansion is organic: once property managers see value, they consistently add more products (condominium accounts, rental accounts, more deposits)
- GetMomo has built a strong brand through word of mouth, which is the most important acquisition channel in the traditionally networked real estate industry
ERP Integration as a Strategic Moat
- When GetMomo launched in 2021, ERP providers refused integrations, believing their own modules could replicate the functionality
- Over the past 2.5 years, ERPs have shifted dramatically, opening up to third-party integrations as the market demands best of breed solutions
- GetMomo now prioritizes deep integrations with the most used ERPs in their customer base, eliminating double data entry
- The integration strategy strengthens the ERP's value proposition: older ERPs become viable when enhanced with GetMomo's live banking data
- ERP partnerships create a second acquisition channel, with providers recommending GetMomo for all banking related needs
Open Banking: Threat or Opportunity?
- Marcel doesn't view open banking as a threat; even in a "perfect" open banking world, GetMomo's value comes from workflow automation, not just data access
- The complexity of real estate payment workflows (deposits, rent allocation, reserve management) goes far beyond consumer level "read data and initiate payment" use cases
- Most German banks have scattered real estate customers across traditional savings banks, with no specialized focus or tailored solutions
- GetMomo works with banks ranging from €200 million to €40 billion in balance sheet size; what matters is the partnership quality, not bank size
- The technical integration expertise with traditional banks creates defensibility that open banking APIs alone cannot replicate
Expansion Strategy: Building the System of Record for European Real Estate
- GetMomo's goal is to become the "system of record" for the real estate industry, capturing all payment-related data flows
- The product roadmap focuses on enabling an AI agent where property managers can ask "who has paid?" and get instant, accurate reports
- Germany is Europe's largest rental market, but France and other markets are even more fragmented, with lower technical sophistication
- GetMomo will never expand into adjacent areas like tenant communication; the focus remains strictly on payment infrastructure
- The company aims to leverage banking revenues to subsidise feature development, a model Marcel recommends for other vertical fintech opportunities
From Banking Apprentice to Vertical Fintech Founder
- Marcel's journey began with a traditional banking apprenticeship in Germany, a good start that gave him deep financial services knowledge
- Working in New York social housing exposed him to the shocking inefficiency of check-based rent payments (a system that still exists today)
- After studying and working at BCG, Marcel knew he wanted to build in fintech and remembered the real estate payment problem
- Early customer conversations with property managers (many now GetMomo customers) validated that the pain points were fundamental and the opportunity massive
- The founder insight: starting with workflows often reveals the underlying banking infrastructure needed, and those banking revenues can fund product innovation