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As the world waits for$65 billionpayments tech colossus Stripe to go public , a wave of modest startups continues to roll into the marketplace to foot up more payments business organization . In one of the latest developments , Danish companyFlatpay , which builds payment solutions for diminished and average forcible merchandiser like shop class , restaurants and salons , has raised € 45 million ( $ 47 million ) , led by Dawn Capital .
Flatpay had raised just under $ 21 million before this latest Series B , and with this new funding , it ’s now valued at well over $ 100 million . The company design to apply the money to expand into young markets in Europe and to build up out more products alongside the decimal point - of - sale and card terminals that it sells today . Some of these products might involve AI but only as an enabler of certain features , rather than a core service , said Flatpay ’s CEO Sander Janca - Jensen .
“ We have been able to raise money without mentioning the AI bombilation Logos , ” he said . “ It seems to be rare these sidereal day . ”
That € 45 million is a strong Series B in the current market in Europe , specially when you take the sizing of the startup . Founded in 2022 , Flatpay presently has just 7,000 customers across Denmark , Finland and Germany .
Even with its revenues and client al-Qaeda both growing at a monthly rate of 15 % , Flatpay ’s commercial enterprise is just a drop in the merchandiser ocean .
There aremore than 24 million SMBs in Europe ; point - of - sales event terminal in the regionnumber more than 17 million ; and there are century of other payment services — including Stripe , Adyen , SumUp and PayPal , as well as smaller players like SilkPay — all direct the same customer as Flatpay .
But investors believe there is a luck of potentiality in the startup , enough to play early and stiff , even in the current economical climate .
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Janca - Jensen , who co - founded the troupe with Rasmus Busk , Rasmus Hellmund Carlsen and Peter Lüth , articulate the break Flatpay espy in the grocery was a lack of really simple solutions for merchants who need the convenience that engineering can bestow , without the harder aspects that come along with it , such as troubleshooting , understanding the intricacies of charges , and integrating products into their business concern flowing .
The startup ’s approach to addressing that crack number in three ways , he said . On the customer side , Flatpay works with a defined size of client : only merchandiser that process over € 100,000 each year , and the customer can not be multiple - location chemical chain or franchises . Janca - Jensen said that it regularly winnow out client if they do n’t meet those parameters .
On the engineering side , it has matched its target customer size with the unit economics of its payment solutions to come up with very basic , compressed fees ( hence the inauguration ’s name ) of 0.99 % for terminal transactions and 1.49 % for POS purchases . Flatpay then does n’t set a minimum charge for single dealings , and it does n’t burden fee if customers are paying with external cards . Janca - Jensen admit that its example signify that Flatpay sometimes loses money on transactions , but it overall lowers the bar for utilisation and encourages more spend and overall revenue for the company .
Perhaps most interestingly , on the sale side , despite its stress on streamlined technology , Flatpay only sell via live sales visits . No online sale ( although there are specialists who will help arrange those in - person sale visit and handle support ) , no practical visit , and no plans to insert either .
Janca - Jensen suppose he and his co - founders originate a fondness for direct area sale when they were selling home alarm system systems in a late life .
As with payment ironware and computer software , security can be a strong sell to customers . Flatpay found that the only way it could dependably seal deals was by selling in soul . And the only way that salesperson can sell in person is by realise the Cartesian product really well . “ You have to get sales rep to understand the product enough to explain it well to purchaser . It set gamey standard for how childlike your mathematical product must be , ” said Janca - Jensen . “ We like that challenge . ”
Around one-half of Flatpay ’s 200 employees are on the sales side , he said , divide between those who help arrange sale visits and do by documentation and those who visit customer in someone . Typically , they are recruited from other retail roles rather than software program sales .
“ We maneuver clear of SaaS report executives and fintech people , ” he said . In his ruling , SaaS gross sales are so loose that people who lick in that area are “ too work-shy and complacent ” to make the grade for field cut-rate sale .
So far , in the three marketplace where Flatpay operates , the design has been to recruit very local sales rep who understand the nuances of their respective markets . That seems to raise a spate of questions about how well this can surmount longer term , but Janca - Jensen brush that concern by , and investors are equally bullish .
“ The field sales example , when done well , works . you could place and roll out teams in a cost - efficient way to explain on a local basis why a product makes sense , ” said Josh Bell , a general married person at Dawn Capital who focuses on fintech .
He pointed out that iZettle — another company Dawn stake — was also an other mover in using subject area gross revenue to sell its fancy unexampled tech to non - proficient customer . “ They were a winner , but even they never did it as well as Flatpay does this . Payments is huge , and Flatplay has touched just at a fraction of the chance . ”
Denmark ’s Seed Capital also enter in this stave , along with other unnamed investor .
