After three years of massive investment in a white label solution for automated expense management and VAT reclaim services, the Danish fintech startup Cardlay is ready to accelerate its international expansion. Through its new partnership with the largest issuer of corporate cards in Scandinavia, Eurocard, Cardlay now makes its solution available as a build-in service to 1 million of corporate cards in the Nordic region. Simultaneously Cardlay just raised €9 million in new funding from SEB Bank and Seed Capital for further international expansion. Cardlay was founded in 2016 and is based in Copenhagen.
At SEB Kort, the issuer of Eurocard, CEO Mads Krumhardt makes no secret of the fact that the ongoing digitalization presents the banks with challenges in maintaining their core business within credit cards and in relation to the customers. He stated: “The whole market for corporate payment services is in transition. Card payments still have an advantage over all other solutions, especially when it’s the individual employee who carries out the transactions. But maintaining this position requires innovative thinking and faster development of new services. Our partnership with Cardlay will facilitate both.”
Cardlay’s technology now makes it possible for Eurocard to offer corporate customers an efficient solution to time-consuming challenges in handling receipts, travel expenses and business-related purchases. Administrative tasks that take up time and do not generate added value for the companies. More than half of all SMEs today manage receipts and travel expenses manually.
The partnership will involve the integration of receipt and expense management, including an AI robot for automatic VAT reclaim developed by PwC, as an integral part of the services Eurocard offers to all businesses on top of their Eurocard.
Eurocard is one of the most widely accepted cards in the world and, with approximately one million customers in the Nordic region, accounts for more than 40% of the Nordic market for corporate cards.
Jørgen Christian Juul, CEO and founder of Cardlay stated: “It’s a strong customer base Cardlay now gains access to. We’re the first fintech to crack the code for complex legislation and complex IT systems in the banks. This means we can quickly add a digital layer over all banking and credit card systems. In return, the banks and card issuers can offer their corporate customers a wide range of new services directly on their existing card platform.”
Cardlay currently employs 50 people, but in view of its partnership with Eurocard and more major agreements in the pipeline, Cardlay predicts massive growth. Jørgen Christian Juul expects to triple the number of employees and is now aiming to expand globally.