Our digital roadmap
and our start-up programme
Our digital roadmap is a key element of the ”Aareal 2020” future agenda. We want to enable our clients to benefit from the advantages of digitalisation, by optimising their processes and enhancing their customer satisfaction.
Another opportunity that digitalisation provides is to be able to create the foundation of a modern infrastructure with a comfortable interface, and to enable a system-integrated electronic data interchange with optimised processing operations for our clients and their business models.
In order to further expand our pioneering role in the provision of innovative digital solutions to our clients, and in order to structure the many forward-looking ideas, our digital roadmap has four strategic directions:
Development of new financial and payment solutions
We are extending our range of offers with tailor-made payment and data process solutions, creating new platforms for our digital products by implementing online portals.
Development of new digital solutions
This particularly includes innovative solutions in the areas of customer relationship management (CRM), building relationship management (BRM) and supplier relationship management (SRM) – based on a digital platform strategy.
Further development of our existing product portfolio
We are engaged upon further systematic development of our existing products, creating solutions which set technological standards. This includes, in particular, our ERP portfolio and BK 01, the process-optimising payments solution that is integrated into the ERP environment.
Optimisation of organisational performance
We also take advantage of the opportunities that digitalisation provides us, refining our communications channels with clients, and being able to design our own processes as efficiently as possible.
We are also looking to cooperate with start-ups, so that we can continue to develop our digital solutions. Our Group-wide start-up programme aims to understand the drivers of digital development, to participate in trends, to enhance our innovative strength, to complement and improve our product portfolio, and to achieve added value for our clients through integration and partnerships.
The programme comprises four areas
Some examples of the cooperations that our start-up programme has currently established:
As part of the programme, Aareal Bank Group implemented a structured process to select start-up companies. Start-ups are analysed on an ongoing basis and assessed through the lens of the Group's strategy. The positive experiences gained in working with start-ups led Aareal Bank Group to support the first German proptech accelerator "blackprint PropTech Booster" – with Aareon as the strategic partner – and enter into a gold partnership with Frankfurt's TechQuartier.
We also initiated a partnership with the world's largest start-up platform Plug and Play. Within the scope of this cooperation, we became a founding member of the recently launched Fintech Europe platform, established in Frankfurt by Plug and Play together with TechQuartier. This allows us to collaborate with the best start-ups in the financial sector worldwide, and to develop applications relevant to our clients.
In 2018, Aareal Bank acquired a stake in BrickVest, a leading European online platform for commercial property investments. Thus, we are placing our bet on a digital model of the future, which will significantly gain importance in commercial property finance over the coming years.
We also founded AV Management GmbH (Ampolon Ventures) in 2018 as an independent company, the purpose being – going forwards – to identify and test interesting, innovative topics in the market. Ampolon Ventures operates from co-working office premises in Frankfurt, enabling the company to actively network with Frankfurt's start-up scene.
