Although funding is rare for some, the fastest growth startups in Europe still have their choice.
The last beneficiary of this investor appetite is FinesseA Challenger Bank based in Amsterdam of five years that targets small and medium -sized enterprises across Europe. The company, which claims to have doubled its income in 2024, has just ended a Tour in series C of 115 million euros (approximately $ 133 million), TECHCRANCHE learned exclusively. This only comes a few weeks after winning $ 105 million in General Catalyst growth funding, its contributor Since 2021.
The Finom’s commercial model focuses on the supply of European SMEs A financial platform that combines the bank, invoicing and an increasing range of features, including AI compatible accounting. “Because theoretically, entrepreneurs do not need to have an accountant at all,” said CEO Andrey Petrov (on the far left in the photo).
The ambitious growth objectives of the startup reflect this vision. While Petrov claims that Finom’s goal of having a million commercial customers by the end of 2026 is motivational and is not set in stone, its new funding makes this target slightly more feasible.
This conviction that Finom could serve a fair share of the 26 million SMEs in Europe is also reflected in its C series. The Tour was led by AVP (Formerly Axa Venture Partners), with the participation of New Investor Stage (formerly E.ventures) thanks to the growth of securities. Existing investors Cogito CapitalGeneral Catalyst, and Northzone also joined the Tour.
Despite this momentum, the startup can find easier to win customers from inherited banks – its current plan – than other fintechs.
Even after its C series, its total funding at around $ 346 million, Finom has much less external capital than Monzo, N26, Revolut or Wise, which all raised more than a billion dollars. Its funding to date is more comparable to the $ 700 million collected by the peer closest to Finom, French Unicorn Qonto – although the comparison is not perfect.
What makes the finishing structure of Finom particularly interesting is its non -traditional component. Unlike typical VCs, General Catalyst did not take any equity in Finom with its non -traditional turn; The capital of its customer value fund (CVF) can only be used for growth, this is how it plans to recover its money.
Combined with series B, this non-traditional financing cycle would have been enough for the Dutch company to reach profitability, according to the president and co-founder Kos Stiskin (on the far right in the photo). But Finom also hoped to increase equity by the end of the year and obtain a new “good and beautiful” assessment in the process. What he did not plan was to conclude the two offers so close to each other.
“One took more time than expected, and one was much faster than expected,” Stiskin told Techcrunch. He refused to disclose the updated assessment, declaring only that it is double the evaluation (also unknown) associated with his 2024 Dollars B series.
Timing may have worked in favor of Finom. Since the company does not have its unit economy published – apart from its 125,000 user base – the fact that the general catalyst has taken a look at the hood has probably contributed to stimulating interest and accelerating funding. This vote of trust – and his direct interest in recovering his money – may have been the signal that led investors to hurry and write checks.
Beyond the signaling effects, obtaining the customer value fund to finance Finom marketing efforts without abandoning equity may seem a good deal for its donors in the C series-which include the general catalyst itself.
However, the C series will also finance more risky efforts than the acquisition of customers by marketing.
According to Petrov, one of its uses could be strategic and opportunistic acquisitions which would allow it to extend its customers or its product portfolio. This represents a change of strategy, since Finom has acquired only one company so far – in 2022, when it bought KapagaA British cross-border payment service when Finom was planning to develop in the United Kingdom
Since then, Finom has moved its objective to some of the largest European markets, where it sees more opportunities than in the United Kingdom, the company estimates that these markets have fewer challenger banks for SMEs and that traditional banks do a bad job at the service of small businesses.
Like many Neobanks, however, it only works with an Electronic Money Institution (EMI) license on most of its main markets: the Netherlands, France, Italy and Spain (but not Germany, where it has teamed up with Solaris, which has a complete banking license).
Despite these license limitations, he was able to Add loans to the Netherlandswhich he considers as a test field for his credit offer – something that Petrov considers as a must for any fintech and for commercial customers.
This loan initiative also complies with Finom efforts to extend its range of products both horizontally – with deposits and loans – and vertically, “from a bank account and at the end of the tax, reports and everything”. AI is also involved, not just on the side of the product.
The company also operates internally. With a team of 500, he plans to hire companies and technology, but not so much to evolve his operations. “We add some people, but above all we add new types of AI agents to work with it internally,” said Petrov. “We therefore hire less than what we need, and we see a good outing in terms of use of AI and AI agents to automate a part of [our] Routine tasks.
The Finom leadership structure has also evolved. The distribution of functions between the four co -founders of Finom has undergone changes over the years, with Petrov now the only CEO – a role he has shared with Yakov Novikov, who is now advisable alongside Oleg Laguta.
The three of them previously created the Russian digital banking bank. But this time, Finom focuses on Europe and its entrepreneurs who are, in Stiskin’s words, “the backbone of the economy of the European Union”.
