Berlin-based Denario has just closed a €1.3 million funding round led by 468 Capital with participation from Presight Capital and Mato Perić’s investment arm MPGI.
With an aim to shake up the payments space in Europe, the young startup will now launch out of stealth mode with its B2B payments software that goes beyond traditional accounts payable and receivable solutions – offering an innovative alternative to traditional banking for businesses to pay each other directly.
Founded in 2021, Denario allows business to connect their financial tools such as bank accounts, PayPal and Stripe using Open Banking and lets their users collect invoice documents from various sources such as Email, Dropbox, or OneDrive automatically. All documents are processed and can be scheduled for single or bulk payment.
Payment processes are notoriously complicated and many European businesses struggle to facilitate the payment process. In addition, many small businesses have struggled during the COVID-19 pandemic and business owners had to turn to banks and alternative lenders to meet their liquidity needs and assure business survival.
Denario wants to change the game to make the process simpler and more efficient – to build products that work seamlessly.
Cofounder, Philipp Adrian Pohlmann, said: “At Denario our mission is to consumerize the business payments experience which is still largely based on paper invoices and bank transfers. By connecting buyers and sellers directly on one secure platform, our goal is to strengthen business relationships and to allow for more flexibility in the payment process.”
Currently, for many SMB’s, when invoices, purchase orders, and other types of documents come in they end up being in multiple places – which is ultimately disorganised and will inevitably slow business processes down. Messy approvals, unstructured communications, and manual processing and forwarding to accountants further add to the burden. It’s an inflexible process that prevents timely payments and takes away valuable time.
Denario founders, Philipp Adrian Pohlmann and Keith Siilats – both experienced in fintech services – saw an opportunity to use technology to automate the business payment process as much as possible and combine it with readily available infrastructure that will allow the introduction of additional payment methods over time. The young startup allows businesses to securely connect their payments online and facilitates the tracking of payment events.
In the near future, the startup plans to add messaging for buyers and sellers to communicate with each other directly on the platform and will allow them to make P2P payments in real-time – completely streamlining the process. The result is a solution that allows for more transparency between buyers and sellers, and improved communication and efficiency.