Our goal is to enable people to have financial autonomy and thus make the best possible life choices.
Up to you!
Life is unpredictable
Horst Schneider is our Founder and Managing Director. We would like to briefly introduce him and tell you how he came up with the AIRboard idea:
As a young man, Horst trained as a carpenter. After his journeyman’s examination, he switched to competitive sports and began a highly successful career as a motocross racer. Within four years, he was already competing in international championship events, and by year five he finished in the top 5 at the European Championships. A serious motorbike accident ended his journey to becoming a motocross professional.
While still in the hospital, Horst’s roommate told him about the insurance industry, and Horst eventually decided to make a completely new start, becoming an independent insurance agent. His next big goal: to understand the financial industry down to the last detail. And so Horst studied financial economics and obtained a Master’s degree in Finance at Danube University/UBC Canada. Afterwards, he worked for many years in leading positions within the financial sector – among others as a member of the extended management board for private bank Bankhaus Ellwanger & Geiger and in private banking at Feri Trust, as well as at MLP, where he was most recently responsible for the staff department “Market & Innovation”.
These two completely different chapters of life taught Horst one fundamental truth: Life is unpredictable! Yet, if we manage to remain flexible, adapt our dreams to the circumstances, set goals and focus, many things are possible.
Horst Schneider is our Founder and Managing Director. We would like to briefly introduce him and tell you how he came up with the AIRboard idea:
As a young man, Horst trained as a carpenter. After his journeyman’s examination, he switched to competitive sports and began a highly successful career as a motocross racer. Within four years, he was already competing in international championship events, and by year five he finished in the top 5 at the European Championships. A serious motorbike accident ended his journey to becoming a motocross professional.
While still in the hospital, Horst’s roommate told him about the insurance industry, and Horst eventually decided to make a completely new start, becoming an independent insurance agent. His next big goal: to understand the financial industry down to the last detail. And so Horst studied financial economics and obtained a Master’s degree in Finance at Danube University/UBC Canada. Afterwards, he worked for many years in leading positions within the financial sector – among others as a member of the extended management board for private bank Bankhaus Ellwanger & Geiger and in private banking at Feri Trust, as well as at MLP, where he was most recently responsible for the staff department “Market & Innovation”.
These two completely different chapters of life taught Horst one fundamental truth: Life is unpredictable! Yet, if we manage to remain flexible, adapt our dreams to the circumstances, set goals and focus, many things are possible.
Everyone makes plans about how their life could look, professionally or privately. However, only very few also arrange their finances in such a way that these plans can be optimally implemented in every phase of life. And, how could they? Interrelationships and consequences are often too complex to be grasped in their entirety in order to make the right decisions. And this is exactly where the AIRboard idea comes into play.
Horst Schneider
Founder & Managing Director
Mannheim location
Inspiring environment, agile network
The FinTech scene has a lot of potential in the Rhine-Neckar region. It offers an agile network with tech giants, numerous financial service providers and universities. In Mannheim, we are part of the start-up and tech community in the MAFINEX Technology Centre, where we benefit from the inspiring environment of a lively start-up ecosystem featuring numerous events, such as workshops, meetups and hackathons.
Supporters of our vision
Our mentors
Peter Reese, e5Media
Founding member of the comparison portal Verivox
Prof. Dr. Wolfgang Kuhn
Supervisory Board,
Ex-CEO Südwestbank AG Honorary Professor at the Institute for Commerce and Banking, University of Leipzig
Lars Lamade, SAP SE
Head of Global Sponsorships Supervisory Board SAP SE
Our business model
About our funding
Our AIRboard experts are salaried employees and their remuneration is not linked to commissions. We provide the AIRboard as part of a fee-for-service model.
The use of the AIRboard is free of charge up to a certain point: Based on your lifestyle, your goals and your risk appetite, an individual financial strategy is created based on your current financial situation. The main points of this strategy are clear, but not yet a custom fit.
For a one-time fee, the algorithm translates your financial strategy into customised budgets and financial products. Based on your financial possibilities, you receive a comprehensive evaluation and an individualised finance concept with all relevant investment and financial products. You can use it to review your existing portfolio of products (insurance, investments, etc.) and adjust them as necessary. Whether you do this on your own or even with a financial advisor of your choice is up to you.
Intermediary service: If you wish, we can organise the processing and adjustment of your budgets and financial products for you. In this case, you don’t need to worry about anything else. With your consent, we transmit your concept to a licensed partner, who is tasked with the strict implementation of your strategy. You simply sign a brokerage/intermediary contract. All fees for the service are reported transparently.
The Team
Hello, we are AIR!
COO & Produkte
Frequently asked questions (FAQ)
Yes it is! Since we work exclusively on a fee-for-service basis, any other model would make no sense for us. The algorithm has only one goal: that the desired results are achieved in the most effective possible way!
In principle, yes. In any case, you will be able to discern how to design your basic themes ... and until the tool is completely finished, an AIRboard expert can help you determine a thing or two very precisely.
We expect to be able to fully inspire you beginning in mid-2023.
We welcome your feedback: for example, let us know what you can already understand through AIRboard, what you consider lacking and what services you would like to see.
Certainly. AIRboard shows you whether everything you have fits you and your needs. AIRboard is not about individual financial products, but about creating an overall concept that is individually tailored to your needs while considering all opportunities and risks (based on your personal risk tolerance). Above all, it analyses your current financial circumstances and takes them into account. In other words, AIRboard views your situation holistically, so that your financial concept is a perfect fit for you, your life and your finances! This makes it an indispensable tool for spot checks of whether you are in your optimal money-life balance.
This can cover many things: a car, a house, a certain lifestyle in old age, saving for the children and their studies ... money is necessary for all these things. That is why these topics are also summarised under the term ‘financial needs’.
A ‘balance’ is simply an offset of all expenses against all income – the result is either positive or negative. A ‘balanced budget’ means that expenditure and revenue are in proportion. This is again achieved by bringing your expenditure needs into proportion with the income generated. And that’s exactly what AIRboard helps you achieve.
‘Lifestyle’ today is the sum of various components: for example, the amount of rent you pay, the quality of the food you eat, your personal style of dress, where you go on holidays ... it all adds up to the cost of your lifestyle. This is what we call ‘financial lifestyle’.
It means you don’t leave money on the table, you don't overpay for insurance, you are optimally prepared for your retirement. It also means you have optimally aligned your finances with your personal lifestyle, your needs and your desires.
In today’s world, this kind of precision is impossible without digital help. The existing financial planning tools from good financial advisors do their job fairly well, but you generally have to enter all your currently held financial products there first. A financial strategy can only be a precise fit if an optimal concept is created neutrally and abstractly – without reliance on existing products. This abstract concept provides the reference point to optimise your existing portfolio.
Our AIRboard experts are experts in the use of AIRboard. The algorithm does the actual ‘advising’.
In principle, yes. But, you can use an AIRboard expert to help you use AIRboard to your best possible advantage. You don't need financial knowledge or a great understanding of numbers. AIRboard guides you through the financial jungle using a simple question-answer dialogue. The scenario calculator is also easy to use. If you have any questions about the tool, one of our AIRboard experts will be happy to help. Ultimately, AIRboard provides you the secure feeling of self-determined action. It's designed to help you take control of your financial strategy.
To bring everything into line! A regularly updated budget and intelligent robo-advisors are good tools. But AIRboard is more about answering the question: “How do I use my income and assets in the best way to support my needs and goals?” AIRboard shows you the WHY, the WHAT and the HOW – and thus you gain planning and decision-making confidence. You can then implement this sound strategy using your robo-advisor.