Stockholm, Sweden-based iZettle is one of the main players in the mobile payment service arena. They recently raised a massive $40m Series C round to continue to expand globally (read here) and signed a partnership with Nordea, the financial services group to be its provider of mobile point of sale (mPOS) solutions in Sweden, Norway, Denmark and Finland (read here).
Jens Münch, VP Strategic Partnership,s answered some questions about the company and its plans.
Hi Jens, what’s the opportunity you found in the market?
Jens: In Europe 20 million small businesses do not take card payments. With more and more people preferring to pay by card and with people carrying less cash than ever, that means SMEs are losing out massively.
For example, 70% of UK customers, prefer to pay by card. Small businesses are the lifeblood of the global economy and account for 30% of GDP on average in the EU. So SMEs missing out on payments is major problem for national economies.
The main barrier for entry for SMEs has always been cost. Traditional payment systems usually involve long-term contracts and rental fees. We saw an opportunity to use new technology such as smartphones and tablets to disrupt the industry. Our mission is to democratise payments and help businesses to grow.
Can you tell me a bit more about the product? How does it work?
Jens: iZettle’s service consists of an app and a reader which combine with a user’s smartphone or tablet via Bluetooth to process card payments. It also provides free analytics tools to help small businesses spot sales opportunities and identify loyal customers.
Which is the most innovative feature of your solution, the one which will allow you to win in this very competitive market?
Jens: We are in the business of helping small business owners grow and develop their businesses.
When we started it was just about taking card payments, but now SMEs come to us to get the tools to help them mature. From complete point of sale solutions, to graphs to spot sales opportunities and analyse transactions, iZettle can help drive companies forward.
What differentiates us from the competition is that we offer an easy, user friendly and secure service that allows people to onboard in just five minutes. We put our relationship with our users at the core of our service. It’s about the people using it.
You just closed an impressive Series C round (read here about their funding history). What can you tell me about the investors?
Jens: The Series C funding was led by Zouk Capital, but also included Creandum, Greylock, Index, Northzone, SEB, Dawn Capital and Intel Capital. We previously had investment from the likes of MasterCard, American Express and Banco Santander.
How are you using the funds?
Jens: In the main we plan to use for developing and building our current services and markets but also to continue our expansion into new territories.
We are currently in nine markets: UK, Brazil, Mexico, Spain, Germany, Sweden, Norway, Finland and Denmark. But we have more planned. Watch this space.
FinSMEs
06/06/2014