Evaluating only Liqtech Payments’s profile at its peak — without knowing the outcome — the model ranked Unit economics as the #1 likely cause. Documented cause: Competition.
Key Events Timeline
FOUNDING
Liqtech Payments founded in Berlin targeting SMEs in Germany, Austria, and Switzerland with a B2B payment gateway.
FUNDING
Closes €18M total across seed and Series A with lead investor Holtzbrinck Ventures.
LAYOFF
Annual churn exceeds 40%; company lays off 30% of 120-person staff to extend runway.
SHUTDOWN
Insolvency filed in Frankfurt after Holtzbrinck declines Series B; ARR stuck at €3.2M with no path to profitability.
Full Analysis
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Documented cause
Liqtech Payments, a Berlin-based B2B payment gateway targeting SMEs in the DACH region, raised €18M across two rounds by 2020. The company competed directly with Stripe and Adyen without meaningful differentiation. Onboarding friction was high, averaging 14 days for merchant approval versus Stripe's same-day setup. By mid-2021 churn exceeded 40% annually. In Q1 2022, lead investor Holtzbrinck Ventures declined follow-on funding after revenues stalled at €3.2M ARR, triggering insolvency proceedings filed in Frankfurt in June 2022.
Lesson
“Competing with Stripe requires radical differentiation; price parity alone will not retain merchants.”