• iZettle

  Participated · Series D · Apr 2018

  iZettle is a Swedish fintech platform known for its mobile point-of-sale (mPOS) services for small businesses. It has launched iZettle E-commerce, an online marketplace priced at £29 per month that lets merchants set up customizable webshops and sell across multiple channels including social media, blogs, and existing sites. The platform processes all major credit cards, supports PayPal, and provides a unified view of in-store and online transactions with real-time inventory stocktaking and actionable sales data. According to CEO and co-founder Jacob de Geer, half of iZettle's users currently don’t have an online shop while the other half struggle with different complex online systems; the product is positioned to address those gaps. iZettle E-commerce is available in the UK and Sweden and is slated to launch in Denmark, Norway, Finland, Germany, France and the Netherlands later this spring. Last year the company secured a €60 million funding round comprising equity from existing investors in a Series D extension and debt financing from Victory Park Capital via its VPC Speciality Lending PLC credit fund. iZettle provides card-payment hardware and a commerce platform for SMBs, plus related services such as invoicing and cash advances. The company cross-sells payments with additional products and is investing in machine learning to power risk assessment and customer analytics. It operates in 12 markets across Europe and Latin America and sees strong growth in the UK. iZettle plans further expansion into Central and Eastern Europe and continued growth in Latin America. Financially, the company reported FY2016 revenues of SKr643 million ($76M), up from SKr402 million in 2015, and narrowed net losses to SKr228 million from SKr295 million. Management said revenues rose roughly 60% in the last fiscal year and expects to narrow its loss year-over-year. iZettle is a Sweden-based payments startup that offers card-transaction services via smartphones and tablets, competing with Square and PayPal. The company operates across ten European countries as well as Brazil and Mexico and is described as one of the largest providers in its footprint, though it does not disclose revenue or user numbers. It received €30 million ($36M) in funding from the European Investment Bank under the European Fund for Strategic Investments; the money is debt financing to be distributed over the next three years. The company said the valuation remains unchanged from its most recent equity round earlier this year, when it raised $63 million at a $500 million valuation. iZettle plans to use the EIB funding to develop next-generation payments infrastructure, apply machine learning and artificial intelligence for insights and actions, digitalize commerce processes, and scale legislative and compliance systems. Past statements from the CEO indicate the company may also use funding to expand beyond mobile payments and possibly make acquisitions to build those systems and hire talent. iZettle offers a card reader that works with smartphones and tablets plus a suite of financial services tailored to small businesses. The company has expanded beyond mobile payments, acquiring intelligentpos to add inventory, loyalty programs and customer flow analytics. iZettle is live across 10 countries in Europe as well as Brazil and Mexico and has been adding about 1,000 new businesses to its platform each day. It does not disclose current revenues publicly and is not yet profitable; in 2015 it reported revenues of 300 million kroner and losses of 295 million kroner. Management has signaled a focus on further expanding services and pursuing acquisitions to broaden its offering. The appointment of Maria Hedengren as CFO is a step toward scaling and preparing the company for its next phase of growth. iZettle provides mobile card readers and payment-processing services to small merchants and is expanding into small-business financing with a capital-advance product called iZettle Advance. Advance will be offered to select existing iZettle customers, with pre-assessment using transaction history plus additional credit checks, and repayments taken automatically as a fraction of card sales. The advances carry no interest; instead customers pay a fixed fee that varies by merchant, and the amount and repayment cadence depend on each business’s sales. The Advance rollout will begin in the Nordics and be rolled out across iZettle’s European markets; the company currently operates in nine European markets and cites the Nordics, the U.K. and Brazil as its fastest-growing markets, while it currently has no plans to offer Advance in Latin America. iZettle says it is funding the initial loans itself and may change funding arrangements if the product scales. The company is prioritizing product expansion and growth over immediate profitability and will use new funding to support the Advance launch and continued growth, while still evaluating potential U.S. expansion.

• Qapital

  Participated · Equity · Apr 2018

  Qapital is a mobile app that helps users save money through goal-based "rules" and behavioral-economics features. Since launching in the U.S. in 2015, it has amassed roughly 420,000 users who have saved nearly $500 million on the platform. The product suite includes Qapital Spending, a linked Visa debit card, and a budgeting tool called Qapital Weekly Spending Target. The company is expanding beyond savings into investment advisory with a planned product, Qapital Invest, expected to roll out before the end of the year. Dan Ariely serves as chief behavioral economist and helped shape Qapital’s rules-and-goals approach. Qapital positions itself alongside startups like Digit, Acorns and Betterment while aiming to build engaging personal banking products. Qapital is a personal-finance app that helps users set goals and save money by connecting their checking, savings and credit-card accounts. Over the last three years the app has been used to help users set and meet savings goals. The company emphasizes behavioral change and has hired Dan Ariely as its Chief Behavioral Economist to inform product design. With new funding Qapital plans to add traditional banking features including payments and branded debit cards to bring spending and savings together in one product. Adding debit functionality will create a new revenue model through interchange fees, similar to other fintechs such as Chime. The move reflects a broader fintech shift from point solutions toward more full-service banking offerings. Qapital offers a mobile banking app that combines social functions, behavioral‑economics driven automatic savings triggers and traditional products such as bank cards and savings accounts. Users set personal savings targets in the app and Qapital automatically transfers small amounts based on chosen triggers. The service is designed to give customers an overview of savings and direct feedback on financial behavior to encourage smarter spending. Qapital operates on the US market and plans to use new funding to further develop and expand its digital banking service. The company was founded in Stockholm (founders: George Friedman, Erik Akterin and Henrik Wrangel) and emphasizes simple, gamified savings for long‑term targets. The announcement notes Qapital’s mission of helping people “save small, live large.”

No current team members are available.