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In a recent development, French startup Qonto has raised around €19 million in funding in its latest Series B round for their fintech product. The latest funding came from its existing shareholders, Valar and Alven Capital, and a new investor, European Investment Bank (EIB) Group. As per the company press release, this is supposedtly the largest round of funding for a French digital banking startup till date.
Around €19 million raised: How will it help?
Reportedly, the company is trying to make business banking cheaper, faster and more efficient. Relatively, with the latest funding, Qonto plans to expand internationally in the European market and also plans to strengthen its position in the French market.
Qonto: All you need to know
Founded in April 2016, Qonto is a digital bank for SMEs and freelancers. So far the company has raised around €31 million of funding in total and the startup wants to replace the professional account of those running small companies. Once the user signs up, they can get a French IBAN, debit cards and can start receiving or transferring money.
In Qonto, one can also create virtual cars, get cards for the team members and receive real-time notifications. Its quite futuristic, time-saving and easier than the traditional banking methods.
The French company offers a 100% online and mobile current account, a smooth and modern interface, customer support, at a transparent price. Based in Paris, the company now employs 90 talents and since its public launch in July 2017, Qonto has reached 25,000 business customers mark and the transaction volume has exceeded 2 billion dollars.
The fintech plans to build on this hyper-growth path and attract hundreds of thousands of small and medium businesses in Europe in the next three years.
Future plans
The additional funding will be used to grow the Paris-based team from 90 to 190 talents within a year. Also, Qonto will invest in major product and technical developments, including a proprietary core payments platform, as Qonto was granted a Payment Institution licence in June. Last but not least, Qonto plans to expand in Europe. The startup will launch in Germany, Italy, and Spain are planned in 2019.
“We are honoured by the renewed trust shown by our existing investors: Valar and Alven. We are also thrilled to receive funding from the European Investment Bank, as we deeply believe in what their mission has been in the past 60 years: supporting entrepreneurship, economic growth and employment. This new round of funding will allow us to accelerate our growth in order to become the best alternative to traditional banks, for all businesses in Europe”, said Alexandre Prot, co-founder and CEO of Qonto.
James Fitzgerald, Partner at Valar, stated, “Qonto’s addressable market is estimated at more than 35 billion dollars in Europe alone, and the team is moving as fast as any that we have seen. Similar to TransferWise, where we also led the Series A and Series B rounds, we were excited to double down in Qonto too.”
Stay tuned to Silicon Canals for more updates in the tech startup world.
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