Gaëlle Haag and Thierry Smets co-founded Startalers in 2018 to offer a technological savings and financial education solution mainly for women. Photo: Maison Moderne

Gaëlle Haag and Thierry Smets co-founded Startalers in 2018 to offer a technological savings and financial education solution mainly for women. Photo: Maison Moderne

On Wednesday 5 October, Startalers CEO Gaëlle Haag announced the end of the fintech that wanted to offer a sustainable savings solutions to women.

“I want to take responsibility. Towards my six employees. To my customers. And to all those who have supported us.” Her voice did not tremble. Yet Gaëlle Haag has just ratified the end of her project, which was intended to give women (first and foremost, but also men) access to savings and a good knowledge of savings mechanisms.

Unlike many others who end a project without a word or make it seem on social networks that one has been bought out by Americans, the entrepreneur explained the startup had “not been able to generate more income as quickly as hoped, in a difficult economic environment with declining purchasing power and disappointing market performance.”


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“At the end of the summer, we should have recapitalised the company to meet tougher EU regulations from the end of 2021, as we have an investment firm licence. The Luxembourg Stock Exchange told us that it could not continue to be behind us in this context, which I can understand after all the support it had given us. We were no longer in a position to find financing from investors and we agreed with the board of directors that the best solution would be voluntary liquidation, which allows us to finish cleanly.” Capitana’s services will cease at the end of October, three years after its launch, which took place a few months before the outbreak of the covid pandemic.

I put my heart and soul into it and I still believe it was a good idea.
Gaëlle Haag

Gaëlle HaagCEO Startalers

The Luxembourg Stock Exchange invested €450,000 in the first round in 2019 with a group of female business angels and the venture capital outfit Seeder Fund, and then participated in the second round with €850,000 with the same investors plus the Liège-based fund LeanSquare.

A double lesson

“For me, it’s difficult”, she said. “I put my heart and soul into it and I am still convinced that the idea was a good one.”

Having just returned from a dinner with female CEOs heading a fintech, the day before in Paris, at the Paris Fintech Forum, Haag explained with humility that the time spent obtaining approval--because she was convinced of its interest--delayed the launch of Capitana and consequently the solution developed by the startup. “I don’t think I was aware that it would take me so long. I also question the need for the entrepreneur to be aligned with his investors about the risk profile. Again, the stock market has been a fantastic shareholder, but a VC with deeper pockets might have seen the situation differently.”

In service of those who are embarking on the roller coaster ride of entrepreneurship, she signs off with a phrase that is more positive than it sounds: “It’s a bit early for post-mortem analysis, sorry.”

Originally published in French by and translated for Delano