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How does the account opening process for Founder Accounts work?
How does the account opening process for Founder Accounts work?
Updated over a week ago

To establish a legal entity in Germany, you must visit a notary to gather all necessary requirements and documents to begin the registration process. One of the requirements for obtaining a registration number for companies in formation is providing business account details. This is where Vivid Business can support you.

Onboarding to the Founder Account

  1. To start the application process, please click this link here.

  2. Please choose ‘Company in Formation’ during the legal status stage. After that, please select your business's legal type, either GmbH i. G. or UG i. G. Please note that we can only onboard these two legal types for now.

  3. You will then follow the onboarding process with Vivid Business. This onboarding process is similar to the General Business onboarding, but there are three key points to note:

    • There’s an additional stage where you must fill in the shareholders' details. Please check this page to see who can we accept as shareholders.

    • Different documents are required during the RFI stage. Please check this page to see the documents we will require you to provide.

    • All directors need to pass through the IDV process successfully.

Deposit the Share Capital

  1. Once your Founder Account is opened, the shareholders listed during the application stage can transfer the share capital using the account details provided for your Founder Account.

  2. Regulations mandate a minimum deposit of 12,500 EUR for GmbH i. G. and 1 EUR for UG i. G. However, this is not a limitation imposed by Vivid Business.

  3. Once opened, you can deposit any amount into your Vivid Business account, provided you have another business account with another institution than Vivid, where the minimum deposit has already been fulfilled according to regulatory requirements. If you only have a Founder Account with Vivid Business, then the minimum deposit required by the regulators will be imposed on the deposit in Vivid Business.

  4. Please note:

    • We can only accept incoming payments from the shareholders specified during the onboarding stage. All other incoming payments, except for the purpose of share capital deposits, will be rejected and returned to the sender.

    • We accept incoming SEPA and international transfers for the deposit.

    • You cannot utilize the share capital deposit in the business account once transferred. You cannot withdraw, make outbound transfers, or transfer to other money accounts during the founding phase. Please take a look at this article for all the limitations of the Founder Account.

    • Once you have acquired the company’s registration number and submitted it to us, and once we have carried out all necessary internal checks, the Founder Account will become a regular Business Account and you can use the initial deposit funds as you wish.

Provide the Registration Extract

  1. Once the Founder Account is opened, our team will send you a request asking you to provide the registration extract that validates the establishment of the company. The request will remain in progress until we validate the registration extract.

  2. The maximum timeframe for you to provide the registration extract is 3 months from opening of the Founder Account. If you cannot provide the registration extract within 3 months, the Founder Account will be closed, and the initial deposit has to be returned to the shareholders/senders.

  3. To read more about it, please check this article.

Fully Unblock the Business Account

  1. Once you provide the registration extract, our team will review the document. If all checks are satisfactory, the founder account will be converted to a General Business account. You will then have full access to all features of your General Business account, including the ability to spend the initial deposit.

  2. The review will take a maximum of 3 business days.

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