Today Juni, the online banking platform for e-commerce and online marketing professionals, announces €2 million in seed financing led by early-stage venture capital firm Cherry Ventures. The new capital will go towards product development and talent acquisition.
The round was supported by a group of notable angels with extensive experience building global fintech and e-commerce brands, a perfect combination for a product merging these two worlds. These angels include NA-KD’s founder and CEO Jarno Vanahatapio, as well as iZettle’s former chief strategy and communications officer Johan Bendz.
Juni was founded in June 2020 by Samir El-Sabini and Anders Orsedal after noticing a need for better, more streamlined banking in e-commerce from their own experiences in this field. Such businesses typically triage a laundry list of decentralized tools, software, and platforms. As a result, entrepreneurs spend time manually consolidating data from areas like payment support, performance marketing networks, suppliers, and expenses.
With Juni, however, this won’t be the case. Juni will enable e-commerce and online marketing entrepreneurs to focus on their larger business objectives by consolidating financial aspects and enabling integration and automation facets. But why is this important? Juni’s development comes at an unparalleled time. Already a growing field, e-commerce has vastly accelerated due to COVID. In key markets, like the US, e-commerce experienced around ten years of growth in three months, making the need for better banking in this arena all the more imperative. Simply said, Juni doesn’t want to be another e-commerce brand. Rather, it wants to be the stable banking service those companies can rely on to meet their high expectations.
Official product launch is set for early 2021, but it’s already possible to sign up for the waitlist with the open beta release right around the corner. Juni’s waitlist has already been instrumental in product creation thus far via regular input.
“We’re building a financial companion that will help e-commerce and marketing businesses succeed every single step of the way,” says cofounder Samir El-Sabini, who has previously worked on the business and legal sides of e-commerce businesses. “We are excited to partner with Cherry Ventures, Jarno, and Johan as they bring unparalleled backgrounds in this space, truly making Juni the e-commerce banking solution made by e-commerce and fintech professionals.”
Sophia Bendz, partner at Cherry Ventures, said, “Proven by their growing waitlist and experience in the field, Juni is already emerging as the trustworthy source for e-commerce banking solutions. We are so excited to partner with cofounders Samir and Anders, and the entire Juni team as they shine a light on this underserved customer segment. The financial needs of e-commerce businesses are distinct and nobody understands those needs better or more inherently than Anders and Samir.”
NA-KD founder and CEO Jarno Vanahatapio commented: “I’ve spent my entire career in e-commerce and marketing and wish Juni existed when I started and scaled my businesses. E-commerce professionals need a simpler solution for managing their finances and being on top of liquidity. Managing payment flows and working capital is universal and paramount in this industry. I think Juni can become an authority as a future e-commerce fintech bank. I’m extremely selective when it comes to personal investments, but the team and the need for a service like Juni is just too good to pass up.”
