Nils Feigenwinter runs his start-up Bling in Berlin, whilst his private life remains in Switzerland.
SWI swissinfo.ch
The Swiss market was too small for his fintech idea, so Nils Feigenwinter founded the start-up Bling in Berlin.
A self-described “doer,” Nils Feigenwinter has built his company on experience gained across many jobs and firms.
“I am very impatient when it comes to the potential and problems in our company. I also have a great capacity for enthusiasm,” he says.
When the young entrepreneur moved from Switzerland to Berlin in 2021, he was just 20 years old. He had previously worked as a children’s presenter on Swiss television SRF, founded the digital school magazine Tize.ch at the age of 15 and built Alas Entertainment, a company for children’s and youth entertainment. A bigger market awaited.
Our series profiles Swiss men and women founding and building businesses abroad. Through their personal stories, we explore why they choose to pursue their projects beyond Switzerland’s borders, the working conditions they encounter there, and the challenges and opportunities.
Through their life stories, this series also showcases how the Swiss Abroad community contributes to Switzerland’s economic, cultural, and political influence.
The idea for a finance app came during the Covid-19 pandemic. Feigenwinter had just started his studies in Basel but felt bogged down. That’s when he had a brainwave: he realised that young people know little about how to handle money. Many get into debt through ill-considered purchases and have no overview of their finances or long-term financial plans.
“Financial literacy can be learnt. It was clear to me that it was a very interesting market if you started right there,” he recalls during a conversation in office of his start-up Bling in Berlin.
In the German capital Feigenwinter met the German app developer Leon Stephan – an encounter that he describes as a stroke of luck. The two understood and complemented each other perfectly, and together they founded BlingExternal link, sharing the different tasks.
Feigenwinter says he is extremely grateful to have a co-founder.
“Being a founder can be a very lonely business,” he says.
The app took a year to develop. The two entrepreneurs pitched their idea so convincingly that they secured €3.5 million (CHF3.2 million) in funding, enabling the Bling app to launch in 2022.
“It was a great success right from the start,” says Feigenwinter.
German pocket money law
Bling has continued to evolve, from a pocket money app to a planning and payment tool for the whole family. It offers budget planners and prepaid payment cards for children and young people. Parents can transfer money and their children can then use them to make purchases.
According to German pocket money law, children are allowed to make their first purchases from the age of seven.
“In Germany, there’s even a legal clauseExternal link for that,” he says with a smile.
Feigenwinter’s decision to choose Berlin as a business location was strategic.
“There are 12 million families in Germany as Bling’s target group. The whole of Switzerland only has nine million inhabitants,” he says.
Rapid growth is crucial
Rapid growth is particularly crucial in the consumer sector because of the need to build brand recognition before others copy your idea.
“It’s about gaining a lot of market share in as short a time as possible – rapid growth. And Switzerland simply has very limited potential due to its market,” he says.
Berlin is also located in the European Union, a key criterion for a fintech company. Start-ups need young creative minds from all over the world to grow and Berlin is still considered extremely attractive.
What’s more, the city also offers an ideal ecosystem for start-ups. “The labour market here is very start-up driven,” he says. You are part of a large network here. The proximity to Berlin investors makes it easier to raise capital. And Bling is constantly dependent on new capital as it continues to grow.
So far, they haven’t encountered problems financing the company’s rapid growth. Investors approached Feigenwinter just a few months after the start-up was created and before the app was launched. The Swiss entrepreneur seems to have a knack for winning them over. He goes into pitch meetings well prepared and confident.
“They invested in me despite my age. We had simply done our homework and had a very good plan,” he says.
Being underestimated can be a competitive advantage, he says. Feigenwinter has been mistaken for an intern because of his age.
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High price for market access
Despite the success, it is important to know your limitations, he says.
“As a founder, you are not a specialist but a generalist. You have to think everything through and consider every day how you can get a little further towards your goal,” he says.
A little humility never hurts.
“I’m aware that I know far too little, but I’m very willing to learn more every day,” he says.
However, as much as the Berlin location excites many in the Bling team, it does have some disadvantages.
“All in all, it was a decision in favour of the start-up ecosystem but not the state system here,” he says.
Red-tape hassles
The smile on his face evaporates during a conversation about his firm’s administrative obligations in Germany.
“I would rather be the CEO of a Swiss company. In Germany, we pay a high price for this market access,” he says.
The young Swiss entrepreneur complains about the excessive bureaucracy, uncooperative tax authorities and absurd notary fees that are incurred for every financing round and every step, no matter how small. Employment contracts can still not be signed digitally.
Bling continues to grow and has now moved into a spacious office in an old industrial area not far from Alexanderplatz in central Berlin. As of March 2026, the start-up has over 50 employees and around 300,000 customers, i.e. family members who use the app for financial transactions for a fee.
“There’s no better feeling than seeing a family paying with the Bling card at the supermarket checkout,” says Feigenwinter.
Back to Basel every weekend
While Berlin has enabled Bling to flourish, for Feigenwinter it is largely just a workplace. His personal life remains centred in Switzerland.
“I’ve spent just one weekend in Berlin in recent years,” he says. On Fridays, he returns to Basel, where his family and friends live and where Bling is not the centre of his attention.
When in Berlin, he stays in a hotel and his week is filled with work and meetings. He is often confined to the office late into the night, usually only leaving for his daily long walk. He admits that he has seen very little of the capital so far.
“To be honest, I don’t really care where I sit from Monday to Friday,” he says, adding that it could also be London or Barcelona.
Would it have been possible to create Bling in Switzerland? Feigenwinter thinks it can be done. He could have founded a German subsidiary of a Swiss umbrella organisation in Berlin.
“But I’m a big advocate of being present where you offer the product. We have a great network here and there is generally good support, including from politicians,” he says.
And the fact that Germany is struggling with digitalisation is perhaps also a competitive advantage.
“There is considerable potential for us. This would perhaps not be as great in Switzerland because digitalisation is already much more advanced there,” he says.
Bling has also recently started cooperating with schools and is making cashless payments possible in canteens. In this respect, there is still plenty to do in Germany.
“This is our focus, we don’t need to open up markets in other countries to grow,” he says.
Feigenwinter closes with a note of encouragement for other entrepreneurs.
“For a whole year I heard people saying that nobody would pay for an app like this. I always took that as an incentive to prove the opposite,” he says.
Edited by Balz Rigendinger. Adapted from German by AI/ac
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