Small and medium companies are getting extra love on the earth of fintech today, and one instance of that’s the development of a startup out of Sweden. Mynt, which has constructed an AI-based platform for company playing cards and spend administration catering to SMEs, has closed a spherical of €22 million ($23 million) on the again of seeing its buyer base develop to 12,000 SMEs from simply 3,000 a yr in the past.
Vor Capital, a London-based funding agency that had beforehand backed Mynt, is main the spherical, with different earlier backers CNI and Incore additionally collaborating. Mynt has now raised round €50 million and from what we perceive this funding places its valuation within the area of €200 million ($210 million).
Mynt acquired its begin when two of its co-founders, Baltsar Sahlin (CEO) and Johan Obermayer (CPO) have been colleagues at Ericsson, the Swedish telecoms big, the place bills have been an entire ache to handle, ironic provided that the corporate is technically devoted to the subsequent technology of knowledge communications.
They labored for one of many greatest firms in Europe, but they knew that the scenario was much more dire for smaller companies, who are sometimes ignored with regards to IT companies, from previous expertise of working in and with smaller companies.
“I experienced this myself, how difficult it is to issue cards and do expense management. The pain points were really the driving force for Mynt,” mentioned Sahlin in an interview. When Mynt first began in 2018, there have been only a few choices for SMEs particularly, he mentioned. “For us, it was more about being between the banks and accounting systems, providing a solution that solves that problem for SMEs.”
They paired up with Magnus Wideberg, a techniques engineer who has labored for a wide range of monetary companies, to start out Mynt to deal with that hole, beginning first with companies within the Nordics, and now — with this spherical — starting its European growth into the U.Ok. and different markets.
Mynt’s enterprise immediately gives firm playing cards with Visa its major associate. (Sahlin mentioned it considers American Categorical “a competitor.”)
Alongside the cardboard companies, it gives spend administration instruments and automatic integrations with main accounting apps. Among the many options it provides its SME clients are methods to arrange and routinely handle out-of-pocket bills, automated receipt matching, digital playing cards, particular person spend limits to higher match spent to finances, a cellular app to handle bills on the go, and analytics instruments to assist clients higher perceive how finances is getting used, leaning closely on AI for the automations, Sahlin mentioned.
Apparently, it additionally has an embedded finance play: Mynt has constructed an API that lets it combine with third events, powering card-issuing companies for enterprise useful resource planning companies, banks, and fleet and gas suppliers.
The opposite vital level, mentioned Sahlin, is that Mynt targeted its efforts on its area alone initially as a result of the Nordic ecosystem is completely different “when it comes to accounting and payment rails.” Its merchandise, designed for firms of between two and 500 workers, with its common buyer measurement presently at 50 customers.
Mynt is going through some massive rivals, out of its personal area and past.
Pleo, primarily based in Denmark, has made a mark in expense administration, additionally concentrating on SMEs. It was final valued at $4.7 billion when it raised $200 million in 2021. It’s not clear how that valuation has modified since then: the final cash the corporate took in was $42 million in debt, earlier this yr, for its credit score merchandise.
However Fortnox (coincidentally, like Mynt, additionally a play on a reference to a spot the place cash is held) — which additionally builds expense administration and different monetary instruments for SMEs and is publicly traded and in addition has a valuation within the vary of $4 billion — is definitely a associate: Mynt powers the corporate’s company card companies.
Within the U.S. there are various firms chasing the SME alternative right here, together with Lastly (raised $200 million in debt and fairness in September 2024), Emburse, probably IPO-bound Brex and Ramp (raised $150 million in April 2024). Massive numbers don’t at all times imply hockey sticks, nonetheless: Brex earlier this yr went via important administration adjustments and layoffs/restructuring after a interval of rising too quick.
Mynt is perhaps going through quite a lot of rivals, however there’s an argument to be made for there being room for quite a lot of firms on this house.
Expense administration stays one of many huge ache factors on the earth of labor: accounts departments spend a number of time attempting to ensure spend is itemised accurately and is authorised, workers aren’t accountants and can generally get this stuff incorrect.
The SME sector has added challenges: accounting departments are smaller, and in some instances may even be nonexistent (it’s you, you’re the accounting division, and gross sales, and IT, and admin…), creating a gap for options that automate time-consuming work like bills admin. And sometimes, smaller companies are a second thought with regards to constructing new and extra environment friendly companies, in order that they don’t
There are simply over 26 million SMBs within the European Union alone, making up about 99% of all companies, that means the 12,000 SMBs that Mynt presently has on its books a really small dent out there. A report final yr revealed by Pymnts spelled it out: solely round one-quarter of SMBs use company playing cards within the U.S., one of many extra superior markets — that means that there stays a largely untapped market.
