Today Penta, the Berlin-based banking alternative aimed at SMEs and startups, announces its partnership with the card reader giant, London-based SumUp. The move is a bid by Penta to attract more offline traditional businesses, such as restaurants, craftsman, healthcare and architects.
Penta, founded in 2017, is the alternative digital platform for business banking, where companies can apply for a business account within minutes. The company has until now been targeting ‘online savvy’ businesses like startups, and has offices in Berlin, Milan and Belgrade.
SumUp, founded in 2011, is a fintech company that allows businesses of all sizes to receive payments quickly and simply, both in-store and online. In October 2018, SumUp released its 3G reader, a card terminal that lets merchants process payments without the need for a mobile app or constant Wi-Fi connection.
We have been watching the development of both, having reported on the launch of SumUp with huge financial backing, and the €8 million raised by Penta this summer to accelerate their growth.
The partnership will mean that Penta can expand its scope to serving not just ‘online savvy’ businesses, but also traditional and offline businesses. Shaking up the status quo, Penta now offers these businesses access to features such as being able to open their account completely digitally, issue multiple payment cards, grant limits and permissions to their team, facilitate expense management and integrate with various accounting tools, as well as accept card payments with SumUp’s 3G reader. Additionally, by ordering the SumUp card reader via Penta, businesses save money on the initial setup fee and integrate their payments with the Penta account.
In the future, the integrated service is expected to add even more functionality, from forecasting sales, to assessing creditworthiness.
James Henry, Head of Sales and Partnerships SumUp, comments: “By cooperating with Penta, we will enable even more small and medium-sized companies to digitize their business and make the payment experience as convenient as possible for their customers. Penta, with its growing customer base of companies, is the ideal partner for us to reach the broad mid-market.”
