kevin. secures $10M to disrupt card networks
kevin. has secured $10 million new capital in a seed funding round – one of the largest in Europe. The investment, which brings the company’s total capital raised to $14 million, was co-led by OTB Ventures and Speedinvest, two of Europe’s leading venture capital investors in early-stage European technology companies. Also joining the funding round were OpenOcean, Javier Perez’s Global PayTech Ventures, and high-net-worth individuals including AmRest founder Henry McGovern.
The proceeds from this investment will be used to further develop the kevin. product offering, particularly around POS payments, the most-awaited service in the market. The kevin. POS product will enable customers to seamlessly pay from their bank accounts for goods in physical shops through existing card terminals using NFC technology. Businesses, meanwhile, will avoid card networks and save heavily on transaction fees.
The new funds raised by kevin. will also be used to expand into new markets. Currently, the Company supports more than 2,700 merchants in 12 markets, including Sweden, Finland, Norway, Poland, the Netherlands and Portugal.
By 2022, kevin. expects to have operations in 28 markets in total, including in new markets such as the UK, Spain and France.
Tadas Tamosiunas, CEO and Co-founder of kevin., said: “A seamless customer experience is at the heart of every payment. We are seeing a huge demand for our services with customers now seeing up to 40% of transactions being made directly through pre-linked bank accounts in mobile apps. More than 70% are switching from cards to A2A in online payments. I am grateful to our growing team of software developers who continue to build the product that enables our clients to make the world of payments faster and safer.”
Pavel Sokolovas, COO and Co-founder of kevin., said: “We are thrilled to bring on board a dream team of value-adding investors with tremendous expertise in the payments industry who support our vision. This accumulated experience will strengthen our platform and value chain, enhance the knowledge of the kevin. team and accelerate growth.”
Adam Niewinski, Managing Partner ofOTB Ventures, said: “kevin. is transforming the payments industry across Europe through its innovative product and extraordinary execution. We are excited to support kevin. through this next phase of growth, and this is a perfect example of our investment strategy to help emerging CEE technology companies scale globally. We are honoured to support Tadas and Pavel and their best-in-class engineering team to expand their solution and unlock opportunities for the world’s leading financial institutions."
Charlie Boles, Senior Associate of Speedinvest, said: “kevin. is developing cutting-edge technology to disrupt the global payments industry. The company has assembled a fantastic team and developed a world-class product. We are excited to partner with Tadas and Pavel and the rest of the kevin. team for this next phase of growth.”
Javier Perez, Founder of Global PayTech Ventures, said: “After a long career in the card payments industry, the increasing complexity of a cashless economy has brought its own problems – bureaucracy, inefficiency and ultimately, higher costs for merchants and consumers. kevin. is poised to change that – enabling innovation with an easily scalable solution throughout Europe. The potential for this business is vast.”