HomeFundingSweden-based Juni raises €18.1 million to boost its e-commerce banking platform for entrepreneurs

Sweden-based Juni raises €18.1 million to boost its e-commerce banking platform for entrepreneurs

Juni, the financial companion for e-commerce entrepreneurs, has raised 18.1 million in Series A financing, from partners of DST Global, Felix Capital and additional follow-on from Cherry Ventures and other early investors. The financing will be used to sustain Juni’s impressive momentum by focusing on product development and recruiting.

Founded in 2020, Juni is an online banking platform that acts as a financial companion for the next generation digital-first companies. The integrated platform is built as a payment solution for high performing digital entrepreneurs, freeing founders and management teams from administrative burdens to focus all their attention on growing their business.  Juni integrates with thousands of banks and the major payment providers, and automates routine functions, allowing business owners to concentrate on creating value for the company instead of managing ad spend and invoices. Juni also offers a 1% cashback on business expenditures, integrated accounting tech stacks, and zero FX fees on multi-currency accounts.

From a product perspective, Juni will introduce a number of features in the coming months such as automation of administrative tasks, a unified view of financials tailored to ecommerce merchants and media buyers, and a number of unique services to financially empower digitally native companies to grow their business. The company is also looking to quadruple the size of its team, growing from 28 to over 100 employees in the next 12 months. Juni will be looking to staff up all major functions in the company, from Sales to Engineering, Marketing, Branding, and Customer Support.

From March to May 2021, Juni increased their total transaction volume almost 500% month-on-month with a weekly average growth of 81%. Recently the company surpassed 250 customers, who have ordered a card and started using it. This growth has been achieved in only three months.

Samir El-Sabini, Juni Co-Founder and CEO said: “Today marks a massive milestone for our mission. Raising such a big round at such an early stage will allow us to sustain the lightning speed growth we’ve experienced, and double down on our product roadmap with full capability. DST has a proven track record of helping companies scale, and exceptional operational expertise. Felix Capital has one of the industry’s most impressive track records when it comes to growing e-commerce related businesses into category leading players. Their combined hands-on experience, coupled with the mentoring and follow-on from our original investors is just what we need to give more financial freedom to our customers.”

Designed to be used by the digital SMEs that act as the backbone of 99% of the European economy, Juni has seen particularly strong growth among e-commerce merchants who rely heavily on media buying, and agencies who need tools to manage multiple brands. Retail e-commerce sales are expected to grow at a double-digit pace over the next couple of years, and it’s estimated that the e-commerce software application market will bring in over 5.52 billion in revenue in 2021.

Joseph Pizzolato & Susan Lin, Investors at Felix Capital said: “In just three months, Juni has already proven that it has the potential to become the next big technology solution for merchants worldwide. The product resonates strongly with their customers by solving a clear pain point and putting time back in the hands of digital entrepreneurs. As investors, we look for signs of ‘customer love’ and ‘digital queues’ in all our investments, and a waitlist of over 3,000 SMEs for Juni’s product is as good as we’ve seen! We immediately connected with the team and we firmly believe in their vision. Their attention to detail and understanding of their customer’s needs puts them in an ideal position to win this market.”

Sophia Bendz, Partner at Cherry Ventures, said: “Samir, Anders, Jonathan, and the team continue to amaze us. Since Juni’s beta launch, they’ve experienced an extremely impressive month-on-month transaction volume in such a short period. They have also built a world class team across compliance, finance, tech, and marketing functions as well as fostered a deep commitment to building community and trustworthiness. They are well on their way to becoming the go-to financial companion for e-commerce entrepreneurs globally. This is only the beginning and we couldn’t be more excited to continue to back this team.”

Juni’s new investors have a great track record in spotting startups with great potential, especially in the e-commerce and fintech spaces. Their funding of Juni’s Series A after their beta programme is a vote of confidence in the unique value that Juni brings to market. Juni now enters the ranks of global success stories like Deliveroo, Revolut, Brex, Farfetch, Airbnb and Spotify by joining the portfolios of DST Global and Felix Capital in just 3 months of operation.

In winter 2020, Juni raised a €2 million seed round from Cherry Ventures, with contributions from NA-KD.com founder and CEO Jarno Vanhatapio, and former iZettle Chief Communications Officer Johan Bendz, among others. Bendz has also joined Juni’s board alongside Niklas Thornestad, who was recently Klarna’s Global Head of Compliance.

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Charlotte Tucker
Charlotte Tucker
Charlotte is the previous Editor at EU-Startups.com. She spends her time scouting the next big story, managing our contributor team, and getting excited about social impact ventures. She has previously worked as a Communications Consultant for number of European Commission funded startup projects.
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