Qonto is close to a 5-billion-dollar net-worth after recent fundraising, signaling the rise of fintech in France.
Qonto, an online bank in France, primarily for SMEs, announced on Tuesday that it raised almost 490 million euros in funding, boosting its overall valuation to approximately 4.5 billion euros, indicating that the fintech sector of France is thriving.
As a result of investment incentives, cheap interest rates, and work-from-home measures owing to the pandemic (COVID-19), the digital enterprises in France witnessed a string of private equity financing rounds.
Ground-breaking funding in the Fintech sector
The current round of funding for Qonto is record-breaking for any French fintech company or financial services startup. TCV and Tiger Global led the way, followed by six to seven additional contributors, including KKR (KKR.N), Eurazeo, and Alkeon.
DST Global, Alven, and Valar, along with Chinese tech behemoth Tencent, were among the previous investors in the round, according to Qonto.
Partnership with October and PayFit
The five-year company comprises a payment processing license and provides financial management services and bookkeeping to SMEs for a subscription fee of 10 euros ($11.34) per month.
It has recently teamed up with October, a French fintech that provides SMEs with small loans up to nearly 30 thousand euros. It’s also collaborated with PayFit, a financial payroll platform established by a software startup.
The vision
“Our main aim is making life as simple as humanly possible for businesses,” said Alexandre Prot, CEO, and co-founder. The company claims to have 220,000 customers in four countries: France, Italy, Spain, and Germany.
The funds raised would enable it to treble its workforce to around 2000 by 2024-25, to reach 1 million freelancers and SMEs as clients.
In 2023, the business wants to expand into more areas. However, it did not specify which ones, as Qonto doesn’t provide financial information.
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