Small and medium companies are getting extra love from fintechs lately, and one instance of that’s the quick 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) after seeing its buyer base develop to 12,000 SMEs from simply 3,000 a 12 months in the past.
Current investor Vor Capital is main the spherical, which additionally noticed different earlier backers CNI and Incore taking part. Mynt has now raised round €50 million in whole, and from what we perceive, this funding places its valuation within the area of €200 million ($210 million).
Mynt bought its begin when two of its co-founders, Baltsar Sahlin (CEO; pictured beneath) and Johan Obermayer (CPO) have been colleagues at Swedish telco Ericsson, the place bills have been a whole ache to handle.
They labored for one of many greatest corporations in Europe, but they knew that the scenario was even worse for smaller companies, who are sometimes ignored in relation to IT companies, from previous expertise of working in and with smaller companies.
“I skilled this myself, how troublesome it’s to problem playing cards and do expense administration. The ache factors have been actually the driving drive 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 extra about being between the banks and accounting programs, offering an answer that solves that drawback for SMEs.”
They paired up with Magnus Wideberg, a programs engineer who has labored for quite a lot of monetary companies, to start out Mynt to deal with that hole. The corporate began first with companies within the Nordics, and now — with this spherical — is foraying into the U.Okay. and different European markets.
Mynt in the present day offers firm playing cards with Visa as its major associate (Sahlin mentioned it considers American Categorical “a competitor”).
It additionally offers spend administration instruments and automatic integrations with main accounting apps. SME clients get a number of methods to arrange and routinely handle out-of-pocket bills; automated receipt matching; digital playing cards; particular person spend limits to higher match spending to budgets; a cell app to handle bills on the go; and analytics instruments to assist clients higher perceive how price range is getting used, Sahlin mentioned.
Curiously, 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 “in relation to accounting and fee rails.” The corporate’s merchandise are designed for corporations with two to 500 workers, and its common buyer dimension is at present at 50 customers.
Mynt is going through some giant rivals each in its personal area and past.
Pleo, based mostly 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, because the final cash the corporate took in was $42 million in debt, earlier this 12 months, for its credit score merchandise.
Fortnox additionally builds expense administration and different monetary instruments for SMEs, and is publicly traded. It additionally has a valuation within the vary of $4 billion, however it’s really a associate: Mynt powers the corporate’s company card companies.
Within the U.S., there are a lot of corporations chasing the SME alternative, 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). Large numbers don’t all the time imply hockey sticks, nevertheless: Brex earlier this 12 months went via significant management changes and layoffs/restructuring after a interval of rising too quick.
Mynt could be going through various rivals, however there could also be room for various corporations on this house.
Expense administration stays one of many large ache factors on the planet of labor: Accounts departments spend quite a lot of time attempting to ensure spending is itemized appropriately and is allowed, however workers should not accountants and can generally get these items fallacious.
The SME sector has added challenges: Accounting departments are smaller, and in some circumstances, may even be non-existent. That creates a gap for options that automate time-consuming work like expense administration.
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 at present has make for a really small portion of the market. A report final 12 months printed 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 it is a largely untapped market.
